Meta today announced three deals to provide nuclear power to its data centers: one with a startup, one with a smaller energy company, and one with a larger company that already operates several nuclear reactors in the United States.
Oklo and TerraPower, two companies developing small modular reactors (SMRs), have each signed deals with Meta to build multiple reactors, while Vistra is selling capacity from its existing power plants.
Nuclear power has become a favored energy source for tech companies as their AI ambitions have grown, providing stable electricity 24/7. Startups and existing powerhouses have benefited from the race for data center power, but in different ways.
Existing reactors tend to be the cheapest form of base capacity, but there are only a limited number of them, which has pushed Meta and its peers toward SMR startups. Companies like Oklo and TerraPower are betting that by building large numbers of smaller reactors, they will be able to reduce costs through mass manufacturing. This is a plausible hypothesis, although it has not yet been tested. Meta’s deal could give SMR startups a chance to prove it.
The deals are the result of an RFP issued by Meta in December 2024, in which Meta sought partners that could add between 1 and 4 gigawatts of generating capacity by the early 2030s. Much of the new energy will flow through the PJM Interconnect, a network that spans 13 states in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest and has become saturated with data centers.
The 20-year agreement with Vistra will have the most immediate impact on Meta’s energy needs. The technology company will purchase a total of 2.1 gigawatts from two existing nuclear power plants, Perry and Davis-Besse in Ohio.
As part of the agreement, Vistra will also increase the capacity of these power plants as well as its Beaver Valley power plant in Pennsylvania. Together, the improvements will generate an additional 433 MW and are expected to come online in the early 2030s.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
Meta also buys 1.2 gigawatts from young supplier Oklo. Under its deal with Meta, Oklo hopes to begin supplying electricity to the grid as early as 2030. SMR went public via SPAC in 2023, and although Oklo struck a large deal with data center operator Switch, it has struggled to get its reactor design approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
If Oklo can meet its schedule, the new reactors would be built in Pike County, Ohio. The startup’s Aurora Powerhouse reactors each produce 75 megawatts of electricity, and it will need to build more than a dozen to fulfill Meta’s order.
TerraPower is a startup co-founded by Bill Gates and aims to start sending electricity to Meta as early as 2032. It has designed a reactor that uses molten sodium to transfer energy from the reactor to the generator. When demand is low, superheated salt can be stored in an insulated tank until more energy is needed. The reactor can produce 345 megawatts of electricity, while the storage system can provide an additional 100 to 500 megawatts for more than five hours.
The company has moved more smoothly through the NRC process and is working with GE Hitachi to build its first power plant in Wyoming. Its first two reactors for Meta would provide 690 megawatts, and Meta said it has the right to purchase six more units for a total of 2.8 gigawatts of nuclear capacity and 1.2 gigawatts of storage.
Meta did not disclose the financial terms of the transactions.
Electricity purchases from Vistra are certainly the cheapest: electricity from nuclear reactors already in operation is among the cheapest on the network.
The costs of SMRs have yet to be determined. Several startups have aggressive cost targets: TerraPower estimated it could bring them down to between $50 and $60 per megawatt hour, while Oklo said it was aiming for between $80 and $130 per megawatt hour. These figures are for later power plants – early examples will likely cost more.
