Google to back development of 3 nuclear sites to ‘move at speed required’ for AI, American innovation

Google has agreed to fund the development of three nuclear sites with Elementl Power, the nuclear developer said on Wednesday.

The tech company will commit development capital to advance the three projects, to be put toward site permitting, contract negotiations and other early-stage costs.

Elementl Power did not disclose how much Google agreed to spend.

Each site would generate at least 600 megawatts of power, and Google will have the option to buy the power once the projects are completed.

Google has agreed to fund three new nuclear sites with Elementl Power. Daniel Prudek – stock.adobe.com

The companies did not announce the planned locations for the new sites.

“Google is committed to catalyzing projects that strengthen the power grids where we operate, and advanced nuclear technology provides reliable, baseload, 24/7 energy,” Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global head of data center energy, said in a statement. 

“Our collaboration with Elementl Power enhances our ability to move at the speed required to meet this moment of AI and American innovation,” Peterson added.

Elementl Power calls itself “technology agnostic,” meaning it has not settled on a kind of reactor to use at its sites, and will wait to choose the most advanced version when it starts production. 

The company, which was founded in 2022, has not yet built any sites.

Silicon Valley giants have been teaming up with nuclear developers to boost the energy supply for massive data centers that power artificial intelligence models.

Google partnered with Kairos Power in October, for example, pledging to buy power from the firm’s small modular reactors. At the time, Google said the first reactor is expected to enter service by 2030.

Elementl Power CEO Chris Colbert said nuclear reactor deals with big tech firms “are necessary to mobilize the capital required to build new nuclear projects, which are critical to deliver safe, affordable and clean baseload power and help companies advance their long-term net zero goals.”  

Google will have the option to buy the power from Elementl’s new sites once the projects are completed. JOHN G MABANGLO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Elementl plans to raise capital from other sources when it comes time to actually build the projects.

The company aims to add more than 10 gigawatts of nuclear power to the national grid by 2035.

But doubts have surfaced as to whether these vast data centers are necessary to power advanced AI bots after China’s DeepSeek in January launched a competitive model it claimed to make in a short amount of time at a low cost.

Industry leaders Amazon and Nvidia last month said the construction of data centers is not slowing down and the need for power is still growing.

“We continue to see very strong demand, and we’re looking both in the next couple years as well as long term and seeing the numbers only going up,” said Kevin Miller, Amazon’s vice president of global data centers, at a conference last month.