Meta is reshaping how big tech powers its future, turning to nuclear energy to meet the enormous electricity demands of artificial intelligence and data centres across the United States.
The company has entered long-term power purchase agreements with Vistra, securing electricity from three nuclear plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania for the next two decades. Alongside this, Meta is putting money behind new reactor projects with Oklo and TerraPower, betting on both existing and next-generation nuclear technology to guarantee steady power supply.
Investors reacted swiftly to the announcement, pushing Oklo’s share price up by nearly 20 percent, while Vistra climbed about 8 percent in early trading.
The push into nuclear power is driven by a simple reality: data centres are once again stretching America’s electricity grid. AI systems require constant, high-volume power, and Meta’s planned Prometheus AI supercluster in Ohio alone will consume energy at a scale comparable to a small city.
Under the Vistra deal, Meta will source power from the Perry and Davis-Besse plants in Ohio, as well as the Beaver Valley facility in Pennsylvania. The Ohio plants together generate more than two gigawatts, and the agreement will help fund plant upgrades and extend their operating life well into the next decade.
When combined with Meta’s earlier deal to support an Illinois nuclear plant, the company says it will have access to up to 6.6 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2035—roughly the output of six full-scale reactors.
According to Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, the scale of these commitments places the company among the largest corporate buyers of nuclear energy in US history.
Meta is also looking beyond traditional reactors. It is backing TerraPower, the Bill Gates–founded company developing advanced reactor designs, with plans for new facilities that could begin producing power in the early 2030s. In addition, Meta is partnering with Oklo to develop nuclear capacity in Ohio, with initial output targeted around 2030.
Both efforts focus on small modular reactors, which supporters say can be built faster and deployed more flexibly than conventional plants. However, these technologies are still untested at commercial scale in the US and face regulatory and cost questions.
The timing is critical. US electricity demand is rising sharply as data centres multiply, with forecasts showing commercial power use growing at its fastest pace in two decades. Analysts expect data centre demand alone to more than double by the mid-2030s.
For Meta, nuclear power offers a dependable alternative to weather-dependent renewable energy. More than a short-term fix, these deals signal a strategic shift in how technology companies secure energy, thinking decades ahead and investing directly in the infrastructure needed to support the next wave of digital growth.
