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ENDANGERED BEES STOP META’S PLAN FOR NUCLEAR-POWERED AI DATA CENTER

Meta's rivals have struck deals to use nuclear power for some data centers.

Hannah Murphy and Cristina Criddle, Financial Times – 4 Nov 2024 22:04 | 111
Credit: Getty Images
Credit: Getty Images
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Plans by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to build an AI data center in the US that runs
on nuclear power were thwarted in part because a rare species of bee was
discovered on land earmarked for the project, according to people familiar with
the matter.

Zuckerberg had planned to strike a deal with an existing nuclear power plant
operator to provide emissions-free electricity for a new data center supporting
his artificial intelligence ambitions.

However, the potential deal faced multiple complications including environmental
and regulatory challenges, these people said.

The discovery of the rare bee species on a location next to the plant where the
data center was to be built would have complicated the project, Zuckerberg told
a Meta all-hands meeting last week, according to two people familiar with the
meeting.

The blow comes as rivals Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all struck deals
recently with nuclear power plant operators to fulfill rising energy demands
from data centers as they race to train and maintain power-hungry AI models. One
AI query consumes up to 10 times the energy of a standard Google search.



Meta is continuing to explore various deals for carbon-free energy, including
nuclear, one of the people said. Meta declined to comment.

Nuclear is increasingly viewed as a way to get stable, round-the-clock power
during the AI wars between Big Tech groups.


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HOW THE CALLISTO PROTOCOL'S GAMEPLAY WAS PERFECTED MONTHS BEFORE RELEASE



However, it also has high upfront costs and takes a long time to build. The
industry in the West has historically relied on Russia for nuclear fuel.




Critics also caution about the risks of the build-up of toxic radioactive waste,
which has to be stored safely or it could severely harm both humans and the
environment.

In September, Microsoft announced it would revive the mothballed nuclear plant
at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.

Amazon paid $650 million in March to put a data center next to the Susquehanna
Steam Electric nuclear plant, also in Pennsylvania.

Google, meanwhile, said last month that it had ordered six to seven small
modular nuclear reactors from US start-up Kairos Power, becoming the first tech
company to commission new nuclear power plants.

Zuckerberg is under pressure to prove to investors that his all-in bet on AI
will bear fruit, as the company’s capital expenditures continue to rise given
its investments in running servers and data centers to develop the cutting-edge
technology.

Zuckerberg told staffers at the all-hands that, had the deal gone ahead, Meta
would have been the first Big Tech group to wield nuclear-powered AI, and would
have had the largest nuclear plant available to power data centers, two people
said.

One person familiar with the matter said that Zuckerberg has been frustrated
with the lack of nuclear options in the US, while China has been embracing
nuclear power. China appears to be building nuclear reactors at a fast clip,
whereas only a handful of reactors have been brought online over the past two
decades in the US.

Meta said it had already hit “net zero” emissions in its operations since 2020.

Additional reporting by Malcolm Moore in London.

© 2024 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed,
copied, or modified in any way.


Hannah Murphy and Cristina Criddle, Financial Times
Hannah Murphy and Cristina Criddle, Financial Times

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