Amazon joins Google and Microsoft by backing nuclear to power data centres
Backing for X-energy will see online retail giant make investments and sign PPAs for output
Amazon has backed plans by small modular reactor (SMR) start-up X-energy to bring more than 5GW of power projects online in the US, in another major boost by a tech giant for so-called ‘mini nuclear’ technology to power data centres.
Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund joined a $500m financing round for X-energy and said it will work with the company to advance deployment of its plants over the next 15 years, starting with a 320MW project with regional utility Energy Northwest in central Washington that could eventually grow to 960MW.
The tech and online retail giant said it will use both project investment and power purchase agreements to support X-energy, which is commercialising SMR technology that can be deployed in 80MW modules.
Amazon’s move is another vote of confidence from the tech sector in SMRs as a way to meet massive power demand at data centres from future AI-driven applications.
Kevin Miller, Amazon’s vice president of global data centers, said of the X-energy investment: “This collaboration between Amazon and X-energy is a significant step toward accelerating advanced nuclear technologies that can help us bring new sources of carbon-free energy to the grid cost-effectively and safely.”
SMRs, sometimes known as 'mini-nuclear' plants, are under development across the world as the industry looks to offer a smaller, cheaper and faster to deploy alternative to giant conventional nuclear power stations.
The tech industry’s signals of imminent soaring demand for clean power to meet AI-fuelled demand have already put nuclear back on the map with a Microsoft agreement to take power from the notorious Three Mile Island facility in the US.
The data centre sector is also looking at gas power, raising fears that renewable sources such as wind won’t be able to take its full share of the coming boom.