Hyperscalers sign long-term power pacts with nuclear operators
The data center has found a baseload religion.
Nuclear cooling towers and power lines
CHICAGO — The AI campus has become a nuclear customer. Hyperscalers are signing long-dated offtake with operators of existing plants and, in a few cases, with developers of small modular designs that have not yet poured first concrete.
The logic is not romantic. Interconnection queues for new gas and renewables stretch far enough that a plant already running looks like the only megawatts that exist in this decade.
Communities and regulators will have opinions about wrapping a civilian reactor in a cloud contract. The companies have already decided that the alternative is a dark rack.
David Chen
Energy and Infrastructure Correspondent
Covers power markets, nuclear restarts, and the grid constraints around AI campuses.