The Physical Stack of AI · Energy and grid
You can name the four marquee 2024–2026 hyperscaler-nuclear deals — Microsoft/Three Mile Island, Google/Kairos, Amazon/X-Energy, Meta's 6.6 GW procurement — and articulate the shared logic that pushed each company to nuclear in the same 18 months.
Two years ago "AI is bringing back nuclear" was a thesis. By 2026 it is an explicit procurement strategy at every major US hyperscaler. Microsoft and Constellation signed a 20-year power-purchase agreement to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1 as the Crane Clean Energy Center. Google signed an up-to-500 MW small-modular-reactor agreement with Kairos Power. Amazon and X-energy announced a 320 MW first SMR project, a 960 MW expansion option, and a broader target of more than 5 GW by 2039. Meta moved from a 1-4 GW nuclear RFP to projects supporting up to 6.6 GW of new and existing clean energy by 2035.
This chapter walks through each deal in turn and ends with the question of why now — what changed in 2023–24 that made nuclear, after two decades of cancellations and cost overruns, suddenly the asset class every hyperscaler is bidding on.
The shared logic to hold in mind, before the details:
Chapter contains 4 lessons.