AI’s real bottleneck is electricity. Who will pay for it?

Executive Briefing

According to reporting by Al Jazeera International, Big Tech’s nuclear power deals raise urgent questions about who will bear the cost of AI’s growing energy demands.

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As Big Tech turns to nuclear power to fuel its AI ambitions, the cost of keeping data centers running raises a question that extends far beyond Silicon Valley.

Within a week, two of the three largest cloud computing companies in the world signed 20-year contracts for nuclear electricity. Amazon has taken 690 megawatts from Constellation’s Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland, including 190 megawatts of additional generating capacity expected between 2030 and 2032. Google has signed an agreement that will bring 890 megawatts of additional nuclear capacity into the United States. Constellation is investing more than $4.3bn to upgrade 11 reactors across Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Neither agreement, however, involves building a new nuclear reactor. Rather, they are paying to generate more output from reactors that already exist – some of which are even older than the companies themselves.

A few years ago, such agreements would have seemed inconceivable. Nuclear power had fallen out of favour following accidents at Three Mile Island in 1979, Chornobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011. Germany phased out nuclear power, while Japan shut down its reactors after Fukushima, although it has since begun restarting them. In many democratic countries, advocating for nuclear energy became politically difficult.

Today, an undamaged reactor at Three Mile Island is being brought back into service, with Microsoft contracted to buy its output for 20 years. The US Department of Energy is providing up to $4.4bn in loans to support the restart of three shuttered plants, with the aim of restoring about 2.25 gigawatts. Palisades in Michigan, which was closed in 2022, is contracted to be generating again by March 2027. If successful, it would become the first US commercial nuclear plant to restart after entering decommissioning.

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Information in this article was compiled directly from records provided by Al Jazeera International. Access the primary source document at: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/10/30/ais-real-bottleneck-is-electricity-who-will-pay-for-it?traffic_source=rss. Reporting and editorial review conducted by the USA NOW News Desk.