Tech giants bet on nuclear energy: Amazon, Alphabet, and others pledge to triple nuclear capacity by 2050

On Thursday Eastern Time, according to Reuters, at the CERAWeek energy conference held in Houston, Amazon, Alphabet, Occidental Petroleum, and Japan's IHI Corporation jointly pledged to triple global nuclear power capacity by 2050 to meet the growing energy demand.

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) expects more companies from the shipping, aviation, and oil and gas industries to join this commitment in the coming months. This move is a continuation of the commitment made by over 30 countries in 2023 to triple global nuclear power capacity by 2050.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated, “We are at the starting point of a new industry.”

Global Nuclear Energy Revival, AI Data Centers as Key Drivers

Currently, there are 439 nuclear reactors operating worldwide, providing 9% of the world's electricity. However, with the rapid development of AI data centers, electricity demand has surged, prompting tech companies to invest heavily in nuclear energy and sign power purchase agreements worth billions of dollars.

Tech giants like Amazon and Alphabet are not only investing heavily in nuclear projects but are also actively exploring small modular reactors (SMRs) as a long-term energy solution for data centers.

As of early 2025, there will be a total of 411 nuclear reactors operating globally, with a total installed capacity of 371 GW. Amazon has already invested over $1 billion in nuclear energy projects and plans to build small modular nuclear reactors to provide stable energy for its AWS data centers. Alphabet and Meta are also considering adopting this emerging technology.

Although Meta canceled an AI data center nuclear power supply plan last November due to the discovery of rare bees at the site, just a month later, the company rejoined Amazon and Alphabet in exploring the potential of nuclear energy as a zero-carbon energy source.

Driven by concerns over supply and rising demand, uranium prices hit a 16-year high in early 2024, partly due to supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the World Nuclear Association, two-thirds of global uranium production in 2022 came from Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia, and uranium supply remains tight.

In the U.S., the trend of nuclear energy revival is particularly evident. The urgent demand for stable energy supply from AI data centers has become a major driving force for nuclear energy development. Here are some key developments:

• Amazon invested over $500 million to build small modular nuclear reactors to provide stable energy for AWS.
• The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the U.S. plans to restart to power Microsoft data centers, leading to a surge in nuclear energy concept stocks.
• The U.S. government approved a $1.5 billion loan to help Holtec restart the Palisades nuclear power plant.
• Oklo, a U.S. nuclear energy startup supported by OpenAI CEO Altman, reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy to advance site selection for a new nuclear facility in Idaho.

On Thursday, most nuclear energy concept stocks fell. Oklo dropped 8.55%. NuScale Power fell 4.82%. Centrus Energy declined 3.07%. NexGen Energy decreased by 2.49%