By Anthony Watts , H. Sterling Burnett
Donald Trump’s call for “American energy dominance” once drew eyerolling from Silicon Valley. Now, in a twist no one saw coming, Meta and other big-tech AI giants are beginning to embrace Trump’s energy vision.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Meta has struck sweeping agreements to develop nuclear power with Oklo, Bill Gates–backed TerraPower, and Vistra Corp. The company will anchor new small-reactor projects while buying secure output from existing nuclear plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Meta’s AI data centers consume electricity on the scale of small cities. They can’t tolerate disruptions every time the wind stalls or clouds roll in. These facilities need constant 24-hour-per-day power, disqualifying unreliable and weather dependent wind and solar.
For years, Big Tech was part of the problem, lobbying for wind and solar and embracing a “net-zero” marketing campaign, in which their companies bought renewable energy credits to appear green while their servers quietly drew from fossil fuel and nuclear power. Meta’s new approach drops the pretense. Its 20-year deal with Vistra will add upgrades to boost output at existing nuclear power plants while funding the construction of the next generation of reactors.
On the latter point, Meta is partnering with Oklo, a company building advanced small modular reactors. If they prove out, Oklo’s Aurora microreactors will produce roughly 15 to 50 megawatts each, making them available for rapid deployment with long operating lifetimes without refueling and designed for small factory manufacturing. This would make them ideal for hyperscale data centers that need constant, on-site power.
Meta is also partnering with TerraPower, the advanced-reactor company founded by Bill Gates. Gates once championed climate doomerism, insisting that only drastic limits on modern energy could prevent a so-called climate disaster. His support for nuclear now represents an acknowledgement of the reality that reliable power is necessary for growth. TerraPower’s Natrium reactors are projected to add up to 2.8 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity by 2035.
