Meta's 6.6GW Nuclear Power Deal: The Largest Corporate Nuclear Agreement in History

Meta Platforms committed to purchasing up to 6.6 gigawatts of nuclear power through 20-year agreements with three energy companies on January 9, 2026.¹ The deals with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo position Meta as one of the most significant corporate purchasers of nuclear energy in American history.² The agreements combine immediate access to existing nuclear plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania with investments in next-generation small modular reactor development.³

TL;DR

Meta signed three nuclear power agreements totaling up to 6.6GW of clean energy by 2035. Vistra will provide 2.6GW from existing plants plus 433MW in upgrades at Perry, Davis-Besse, and Beaver Valley facilities. Oklo will develop a 1.2GW advanced reactor campus in Pike County, Ohio, potentially online by 2030. TerraPower will deliver two 345MW sodium-cooled reactors by 2032 with options for six additional units. The power will support Meta's Prometheus AI supercluster in New Albany, Ohio, the world's first data center requiring over 1GW of power.

The Nuclear Power Strategy Behind Prometheus

Meta's Prometheus supercluster represents a fundamental shift in AI infrastructure scale. The facility under construction in New Albany, Ohio, spans five massive data center buildings across a 740-acre industrial tract.⁴ CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the 1GW cluster will come online in 2026 to train next-generation Llama AI models.⁵

The sheer power requirements drove Meta toward nuclear energy. Data centers of this magnitude cannot rely on intermittent renewable sources alone. Nuclear provides 24/7 carbon-free baseload power that solar and wind cannot match.⁶ A single legacy nuclear reactor generates approximately 800MW, while AI data centers can require up to 5GW.⁷

The PJM Interconnection, which manages the grid serving Ohio and 12 other states, faces a capacity shortage starting as early as June 2026.⁸ Capacity prices have surged from $28.92 per megawatt-day in 2024/25 to $329.17/MW-day in 2026/27.⁹ Data centers accounted for $6.5 billion, or 40%, of the $16.4 billion in costs from PJM's December capacity auction.¹⁰

Meta's nuclear strategy addresses both the carbon-free power requirement and the grid reliability crisis. By investing in uprates at existing plants and funding new reactor development, Meta contributes to expanding baseload generation in a region where demand growth has accelerated from 0.3% annually in 2021 forecasts to 3.6% annually in current projections.¹¹

Vistra Agreement: 2.6GW from Existing Nuclear Plants

The Vistra partnership delivers the most immediate power. Meta signed 20-year agreements to purchase more than 2.1GW of energy from two operating nuclear plants in Ohio.¹² The deal extends the operating licenses of each facility by an additional 20 years.¹³

Perry Nuclear Plant

Perry operates as a single-unit facility on Lake Erie, approximately 40 miles northeast of Cleveland. The plant generates 1,268MW and employs more than 600 full-time workers in the North Perry area.¹⁴ The boiling water reactor began commercial operation in 1987 and received a 20-year license extension from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2021.¹⁵

Davis-Besse Nuclear Plant

Davis-Besse sits on Lake Erie approximately 35 miles east of Toledo in Oak Harbor, Ohio. The single-unit pressurized water reactor has a capacity of approximately 900MW.¹⁶ The plant has operated since 1977 and serves as one of the largest employers in Ottawa County.¹⁷

Beaver Valley Nuclear Plant

Vistra's Beaver Valley plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, adds geographic diversity to Meta's nuclear portfolio. The two-unit facility has licenses extending through 2036 and 2047 for its respective units.¹⁸ The plant provides approximately 1,800MW of combined capacity to the PJM grid.¹⁹

Capacity Uprates

Beyond purchasing existing output, Meta is funding 433MW of equipment upgrades across all three facilities. These uprates represent more than 15% of the total contracted capacity.²⁰ The upgrades will add new capacity to the PJM region, with completion expected in the early 2030s.²¹

Meta's purchases begin in late 2026, with additional capacity coming online through 2034 when the full 2,609MW will be operational.²²

Oklo Partnership: 1.2GW Advanced Reactor Campus

Oklo Inc. will develop an advanced nuclear technology campus in Pike County, Ohio, with a target capacity of 1.2GW.²³ The project represents the most ambitious deployment of Oklo's Aurora Powerhouse reactors to date.

Pike County Site

An Oklo affiliate purchased a 206-acre parcel from the U.S. Department of Energy in December 2025 for $5.15 million.²⁴ The site sits off US Highway 23 on land previously associated with federal uranium enrichment operations.²⁵ The location is undergoing a decades-long cleanup of radioactive and toxic contamination, with areas becoming available for development as remediation completes.²⁶

Aurora Powerhouse Technology

Oklo's Aurora Powerhouse reactors each produce 75MW of electricity.²⁷ The company will need to construct more than a dozen units to fulfill Meta's 1.2GW order. The design uses metallic fuel and a sodium-cooled fast reactor configuration.²⁸

Timeline and Phasing

Pre-construction and site characterization will begin in 2026.²⁹ Oklo targets the first phase online as early as 2030, with incremental expansion reaching the full 1.2GW by 2034.³⁰

Each powerhouse requires approximately 35 permanent jobs plus 16 additional positions per unit for administration and technical engineering.³¹ The complete project will provide thousands of jobs for the Pike County community.³²

Regulatory Challenges

Oklo faces significant licensing hurdles. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission rejected Oklo's combined license application for its Aurora design at Idaho National Laboratory in 2022, citing insufficient safety and design information.³³ The rejection was notable because the NRC denied the application rather than requesting revisions.³⁴

The company has completed two of 16 steps in the licensing process for its Idaho project and will need separate licenses for the Pike County plants.³⁵ The NRC's approach to licensing novel reactor designs remains a critical variable in Oklo's deployment timeline.

Sam Altman Connection

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman owns a 4.3% stake in Oklo valued at approximately $650 million.³⁶ Oklo went public in 2024 through a special purpose acquisition company that Altman co-founded. He stepped down as chairman of Oklo's board in April to help the company secure customers competing with OpenAI.³⁷

TerraPower Agreement: Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors

TerraPower, the nuclear startup co-founded by Bill Gates, will supply Meta with at least two 345MW Natrium reactors.³⁸ The deal includes options for up to six additional units, with delivery targeted for 2035.³⁹

Natrium Technology

The Natrium reactor uses a sodium-cooled fast reactor design, a Generation IV technology that operates at higher temperatures and lower pressures than conventional light water reactors.⁴⁰ The distinguishing feature is an integrated molten salt thermal energy storage system that allows the plant to flex output to 500MW for over five hours.⁴¹

This capability enables the Natrium to function as a "nuclear battery," dispatching firm power to balance intermittent renewable generation.⁴² The flexibility addresses one of the primary challenges facing grid operators managing increasing solar and wind penetration.

Wyoming Demonstration Project

TerraPower broke ground on its first Natrium reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in June 2024.⁴³ The project marks the nation's first commercial advanced reactor of its kind, built on land near a retiring coal plant.⁴⁴

The NRC has completed its draft safety evaluation on TerraPower's construction permit application. The agency expects to finalize its safety evaluation by June 2026 and its environmental review by May 2026.⁴⁵

HALEU Fuel Constraints

TerraPower's Natrium originally targeted commercial operation by 2028, but fuel supply issues have pushed the schedule toward 2030 and beyond.⁴⁶ The reactor requires High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU), enriched between 5% and 20%.⁴⁷

Russia currently operates the only facility manufacturing HALEU at commercial scale.⁴⁸ The U.S. Department of Energy projects demand for more than 40,000 kilograms of HALEU by 2030, but domestic production capacity remains negligible at less than one metric ton per year.⁴⁹

Centrus Energy launched commercial enrichment activities in Ohio targeting HALEU production to address a $2.3 billion backlog.⁵⁰ Urenco USA produced its first enriched uranium above 5% in New Mexico in late 2025.⁵¹ The Savannah River National Laboratory targets December 2027 for its first HALEU shipment to sustain early SMR deployment.⁵²

How Meta's Deal Compares to Other Tech Nuclear Agreements

Meta's 6.6GW commitment represents the largest single corporate nuclear agreement in American history. Big tech companies signed contracts for more than 10GW of possible new nuclear capacity in the United States over the past year.⁵³

Microsoft: Three Mile Island Restart

Microsoft signed a 20-year, $16 billion power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1.⁵⁴ The 835MW facility targets a 2028 restart. The agreement sparked controversy given the site's association with the 1979 partial meltdown at Unit 2, though Unit 1 operated safely until retirement in 2019.⁵⁵

Google: Kairos Power SMR Fleet

Google executed the first U.S. corporate SMR fleet deal with Kairos Power for 500MW.⁵⁶ The agreement targets initial deployment by 2030 with additional reactors through 2035. Google also signed a 200MW power purchase agreement with Commonwealth Fusion Systems for fusion power expected in the early 2030s.⁵⁷

Amazon: Multi-Pronged Nuclear Strategy

Amazon committed over $20 billion to nuclear-powered data center infrastructure.⁵⁸ The company's deal with Talen Energy secures 1.9GW from the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania through 2042.⁵⁹ Amazon led a $500 million investment in X-energy to develop gas-cooled SMRs producing at least 5GW by 2039.⁶⁰

Additional Amazon agreements with Energy Northwest and Dominion Energy will produce multiple advanced SMRs in Washington state and Virginia.⁶¹

Meta's approach stands out for combining immediate baseload access through Vistra with investments in multiple SMR technologies through TerraPower and Oklo. The diversified strategy hedges against delays in any single advanced reactor program while securing near-term power for Prometheus.

Grid Impact and Regional Implications

The Ohio and Pennsylvania nuclear plants feeding Meta's data centers operate within the PJM Interconnection. PJM manages the grid for 65 million people across 13 states and the District of Columbia.⁶²

Capacity Crisis

PJM has warned of a capacity shortage affecting the system as early as June 2026.⁶³ The annualized load growth rate for summer peak demand has jumped from 0.3% per year in 2021 forecasts to 3.6% per year in current 10-year projections.⁶⁴

Data centers are connecting to the grid faster than new power supply can be built.⁶⁵ If nothing changes, the region may fall below reliability standards by June 2027, increasing the risk of rolling blackouts during extreme weather events.⁶⁶

Meta's Contribution to Grid Stability

Meta's funding for 433MW in uprates at Vistra's existing plants adds new generation capacity to address the shortage.⁶⁷ These upgrades contribute to the 51 generation resource projects PJM selected to address near-term demand growth, consisting of 39 uprates and 12 new construction proposals.⁶⁸

The Oklo campus in Pike County will add 1.2GW of clean baseload power directly into the PJM market.⁶⁹ Distributed across the 2030-2034 timeframe, this capacity arrives as the grid faces its most severe constraints.

Economic Impact

Meta's nuclear investments will generate significant regional employment. The existing Vistra plants employ over 1,200 workers across the three facilities.⁷⁰ The Oklo campus will add thousands of construction and permanent positions to Pike County, one of the state's economically disadvantaged areas.⁷¹

Infrastructure projects supporting Prometheus extend the economic impact. Ohio Power Siting Board approved plans for Will-Power OH to build a 200MW natural gas generation facility in New Albany, with a second 200MW facility under review.⁷²

Challenges and Risks

Regulatory Uncertainty

Advanced reactor designs from Oklo and TerraPower require NRC approval processes that differ significantly from licensing for conventional light water reactors.⁷³ The NRC has processed few novel reactor applications, and the agency rejected Oklo's initial submission in 2022.⁷⁴

TerraPower's Natrium faces a different regulatory pathway, with the NRC targeting completion of its construction permit review by mid-2026.⁷⁵ However, moving from construction permit to operating license involves additional regulatory milestones.

Fuel Supply Chain

HALEU availability remains the most significant barrier to SMR deployment.⁷⁶ More than half of SMR designs planning to use HALEU have not progressed beyond non-binding agreements for fuel supply.⁷⁷ The U.S. nuclear industry warns that deployment of some designs may face multi-year delays due to HALEU shortages.⁷⁸

Domestic enrichment capacity is expanding but will require years to reach commercial scale. Until supply chains mature, advanced reactors dependent on HALEU face fuel constraints that could delay Meta's TerraPower delivery schedule.⁷⁹

Construction and Cost Overruns

Nuclear construction projects have historically experienced significant delays and cost increases. The Vogtle units 3 and 4 in Georgia, the only new nuclear plants completed in the U.S. in decades, came online years late and billions over budget.⁸⁰

SMR proponents argue that factory fabrication and smaller scale will improve cost predictability.⁸¹ However, no commercial SMR has yet operated in the United States to validate these projections.

Key Takeaways

For Infrastructure Planners:

• Meta's phased approach combining existing nuclear capacity with SMR investments provides a template for securing baseload power while hedging technology risk
• The 433MW in plant uprates demonstrates that incremental capacity additions to existing facilities can deliver new generation faster than greenfield construction
• Pike County's site selection on remediated DOE land illustrates emerging opportunities for nuclear development on federal property

For Operations Teams:

• Vistra's 20-year power purchase agreements beginning in late 2026 align with Prometheus deployment timelines
• Multiple nuclear suppliers reduce single-point-of-failure risk in the power supply chain
• Grid interconnection through PJM provides access to a deep wholesale power market with established settlement mechanisms

For Strategic Leaders:

• The 6.6GW commitment positions Meta competitively against Microsoft, Google, and Amazon in securing reliable AI training infrastructure
• Nuclear power agreements lock in long-term electricity costs, hedging against PJM capacity price volatility that has seen 10x increases
• Investments in TerraPower and Oklo create optionality on next-generation reactor technology while competitors focus on single vendors

The scale of AI infrastructure demands power solutions that match. Nuclear energy provides the reliable, carbon-free baseload generation that intermittent renewables cannot deliver. Meta's 6.6GW agreement establishes the company as a first mover in the nuclear-powered AI data center era.

For organizations navigating similar infrastructure challenges, Introl provides expertise in data center power architecture and deployment at scales from individual facilities to multi-gigawatt campuses.

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