Tech companies are really excited about advanced nuclear power, which is a hot topic in the energy world right now. However, they are still actively investing in renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
For example, Meta, the company behind Facebook, recently made a big move by signing a contract with a Spanish renewable energy company called Zelestra to buy 595 megawatts of solar power in Texas. This deal comes just two weeks after they agreed to another solar project with a utility company named Engie. This new purchase is important for Meta because it adds nearly 5% to the more than 12 gigawatts of renewable energy they already have lined up.
This announcement coincides with Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, pushing forward the company’s ambitious plans in artificial intelligence (AI), which require a lot of investment in data centers—places where all the computing happens. Meta is in a race to make its AI model, called Llama 4, competitive with other well-known AI models from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. While a recent method called DeepSeek showed a more efficient way to develop models, it might not work for cutting-edge ones like Llama 4.
This year, Meta plans to spend a whopping $60 billion on capital investments, mostly to build up its data center infrastructure. Zuckerberg mentioned that this investment is a “strategic advantage” for the company during a recent earnings call.
Like many other tech companies, Meta believes that nuclear reactors could provide reliable power for their future computing needs. They are looking for proposals to secure 1 to 4 gigawatts of nuclear power to be ready by the early 2030s. To give you an idea of how much power that is, one gigawatt can supply electricity to about 750,000 homes.
However, Meta can’t just sit and wait for nuclear power to come online; they need to expand their data center operations right now. Companies like Meta are investing huge amounts of money to build these data centers, which require a lot of electricity. Some experts are warning that by 2027, half of all new AI data centers might not have enough power to meet their needs.
Read Also: Hundreds Of Companies Block DeepSeek Due To China Data Risks
Building nuclear power plants takes a long time, and the newest types of reactors are not yet proven to be commercially viable. Natural gas plants can be built a bit faster, but neither option can match the speed of deploying renewable energy sources.
For instance, a solar farm can start generating electricity in as little as 18 months. The technology used in solar power is modular, meaning that parts of the solar farm can start supplying energy even before the entire installation is complete.
This quick turnaround has allowed renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and large-scale battery storage to keep securing new contracts with tech companies. Along with the recent deal with Zelestra, Meta also announced earlier this month that they are buying 200 megawatts of solar energy from Engie, which will start producing power later this year. Other tech giants are also making big moves; for example, Microsoft is investing $9 billion in renewables with a company called Acadia Infrastructure Capital, while Google is backing a $20 billion renewable energy fund with Intersect Power and TPG Rise.
