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Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta company’s plan to build a nuclear-powered AI data center in the United States has been partially thwarted after a rare species of bee was discovered on land earmarked for the project. People familiar with the matter said.
Mr. Zuckerberg had planned to strike a deal with an existing nuclear power plant operator to provide emissions-free power to a new data center that would support his artificial intelligence ambitions.
But the potential deal had multiple complications, including environmental and regulatory issues, the people said.
Mr. Zuckerberg told Meta’s all-hands meeting last week that the discovery of rare honey bees next to the factory where the data center is planned would complicate the project, according to two people familiar with the meeting. .
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The blow comes after rivals Amazon, Google and Microsoft recently struck deals with nuclear power plant operators to meet rising energy demands from data centers competing to train and maintain power-hungry AI models. It’s happening because of this. A single AI query consumes up to 10 times more energy than a standard Google search.
Meta continues to explore various deals on decarbonized energy, including nuclear, one of the people said. Mehta declined to comment.
Nuclear power is increasingly being seen as a way to obtain stable 24-hour power during the AI wars between big tech groups.
However, initial costs are high and construction takes a long time. Western industry has historically relied on Russia for nuclear fuel.
Critics have also warned of the risk of toxic radioactive waste accumulating, which must be stored safely or could cause serious harm to both humans and the environment. .
Microsoft announced in September that it would revive a dormant nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
In March, Amazon paid $650 million to build a data center next to the Susquehanna Steam Electric nuclear power plant, also in Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Google announced last month that it had ordered six to seven small modular nuclear reactors from U.S. startup Kairos Power, making it the first tech company to bring a new nuclear power plant online.
Zuckerberg is confident that the company’s all-out bet on AI will pay off as the company’s capital expenditures continue to rise to account for investments in operating servers and data centers to develop cutting-edge technology. They are under pressure to prove things to investors.
Mr. Zuckerberg told staff at the all-hands meeting that if the deal goes through, Meta would be the first Big Tech group to use nuclear-powered AI to power data centers, two people familiar with the matter said. He said he would have owned the largest nuclear power plant available.
Mr. Zuckerberg is frustrated that China tolerates nuclear power while the United States lacks a nuclear option, one of the people said. China appears to be building nuclear reactors at a rapid pace, but the United States has only operated a few reactors in the past 20 years.
Mehta said its operations have already reached “net zero” emissions since 2020.
Additional reporting from London by Malcolm Moore
