Can nuclear energy satisfy AI’s endless demand for power? It is too early to know for sure, but Alphabet is betting over $1 billion that it can.
Reports suggest that Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., is nearing a massive multi-year agreement to buy nuclear energy from Constellation Energy Corp. According to sources familiar with the matter, the deal is expected to be valued at $1 billion or more and could be announced as early as this week.
It is a striking figure. But in the world of generative AI, where data centers gulp gigawatts like water, a billion dollars is just the cover charge to keep the power running.
AI models demand continuous power that renewable sources like solar and wind cannot consistently provide because they depend on the weather. Nuclear energy could supply steady, carbon-free baseload power around the clock.
Google’s electricity demand soared from 12.8 terawatt-hours in 2019 to 44 terawatt-hours in 2025. Over 95 per cent of Alphabet’s total global electricity consumption goes directly to its data centers, with administrative offices and corporate campuses accounting for the remaining 5 per cent.
The tech giant counters this surge by deploying custom high-performance servers, machine learning, intelligent climate controls, and advanced cooling systems across its data centers. These targeted efficiency measures ensure that hardware operates with minimal energy waste even as global computing loads expand.
However, building brand-new nuclear reactors is a slow process. This leaves tech companies with little choice but to squeeze every remaining drop of capacity from existing infrastructure.
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