Tech corporations could also be vocal about their love of superior nuclear energy — the flashy development that’s been sweeping the vitality sector — however they proceed so as to add renewable capability.
Meta lately signed a cope with Spanish renewable developer Zelestra for 595 megawatts of solar energy in Texas, simply two weeks after signing a separate photo voltaic cope with utility firm Engie. It’s a major buy for the tech firm, representing a virtually 5% bump to the 12-plus gigawatts of renewable capability it at present has below contract.
The announcement comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg maintains the corporate’s formidable AI technique — which would require hefty capital investments in knowledge facilities.
Meta is racing to make its open-source Llama 4 mannequin a rival to closed-source rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic. And whereas DeepSeek confirmed that fashions may very well be developed extra effectively, its method doesn’t essentially apply to vanguard fashions like Llama 4.
Meta plans to spend $60 billion this yr on capital investments, most of which might go towards knowledge heart infrastructure, calling it a “strategic benefit” for the corporate, Zuckerberg stated throughout a Wednesday earnings name.
Like lots of its friends, Meta is betting that nuclear reactors can present secure energy for its future compute wants, soliciting proposals for 1 to 4 gigawatts of capability to come back on-line within the early 2030s. One gigawatt is sufficient to energy about 750,000 properties.
However the firm can’t wait till then so as to add to its knowledge heart footprint. Meta and others are deploying monumental sums of capital to construct knowledge facilities, which want correspondingly massive quantities of energy. The chokepoint has some specialists predicting that half of all new AI knowledge facilities shall be underpowered by 2027.
Nuclear energy crops take years to construct, and the newest crop of superior reactors have but to be commercially confirmed. Pure gasoline energy crops are barely sooner.
Neither can compete with the velocity of renewable deployment.
A photo voltaic farm could be introduced on-line in as few as 18 months, and since the expertise is modular, parts of the ability plant can begin delivering energy earlier than the final panel is related.
That velocity has allowed renewables like wind, photo voltaic, and grid-scale battery storage to proceed racking up new contracts from tech corporations. Along with this week’s deal, Meta introduced earlier this month it purchased 200 megawatts of photo voltaic from Engie, which can come on-line later this yr. Elsewhere, Microsoft helps to deploy $9 billion price of renewables with Acadia Infrastructure Capital, whereas Google is anchoring a $20 billion renewable fund with Intersect Energy and TPG Rise.