Google is considering nuclear power to feed its energy-hungry AI data centers

• Google could one day use nuclear energy to power its AI data centers.
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is “evaluating technologies like small modular nuclear reactors.”
• Competitors like Amazon and Microsoft are turning to nuclear energy to power their data centers too.

If Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s hints on Thursday are any indicator, nuclear energy may one day power some of Google’s energy-hungry AI data centers.

Google, Pichai said, is looking for energy sources that not only meet its high energy needs but will also fulfill its goal of generating net-zero emissions.

The search giant aims to achieve net-zero emissions across all of its operations by 2030.

“It was a very ambitious target and we are still going to be working very ambitiously towards it. Obviously, the trajectory of AI investments has added to the scale of the task needed,” Pichai said in an interview with Nikkei Asia published Thursday.

“We are now looking at additional investments, be it solar, and evaluating technologies like small modular nuclear reactors, etc.,” Pichai added, though he didn’t specify when and where Google would start sourcing electricity from nuclear power plants.

To be sure, this isn’t the first time Google has expressed interest in clean energy alternatives like nuclear energy.

In September 2023, Google published a blog post and white paper saying that it would “continue to invest significantly” in clean energy technologies like geothermal power and hydrogen.

Google isn’t the only tech giant considering using nuclear energy to power its data centers.

Both its competitors, Amazon and Microsoft, have already announced electricity deals with nuclear power stations.

In March, Amazon inked a $650 million deal to buy electricity from the Susquehanna nuclear power station, per the Financial Times.

Then, in September, Microsoft signed a 20-year deal to purchase energy from Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant, the plant’s owner, Constellation Energy, said in a statement.

The reactor, which was shut down in 2019, is slated to be restarted in 2028.