Meta’s Nuclear Offtake Blitz: 6.6 GW for AI Data Centers

Zach Martin

Welcome to NUCLEAR CAPITAL, right here on I R Hub. I'm Zach Martin, and with me is Emily Martin. Today we're not doing the big overview of the nuclear race. We're zooming in on one story: Meta Platforms and its agreements for up to 6.6 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2035, with Vistra, Oklo, and TerraPower. A quick note before we start. Everything we discuss is informational only. The companies we mention, including Meta, Vistra, Oklo, TerraPower, and Constellation, are not recommendations to buy or sell anything.

Emily Martin

Thanks, Zach. The word that matters in that headline is "up to." Meta announced three separate deals in January, and they came out of a request for proposals Meta launched in December 2024, which sought one to four gigawatts of new nuclear capacity. What came back was bigger and more varied than that. The deals cover an operating fleet, a first-of-a-kind sodium reactor, and an early-stage fast reactor campus. All of the power is aimed at PJM, the largest grid operator in the country, which has been signaling tight supply through record-setting capacity auctions.

Zach Martin

Let's start with the piece you can count on, which is Vistra. Think of it like a fitness plan. The first thing you do is lock in the habits you already have, before you chase a stretch goal. That's Vistra. Meta signs twenty-year power purchase agreements covering more than 2.6 gigawatts from the Perry and Davis-Besse plants in Ohio and the Beaver Valley plant in Pennsylvania.

Emily Martin

Let me break down the numbers, because they're easy to blur. Meta buys 2,176 megawatts of energy and capacity from Perry and Davis-Besse. Perry is a boiling water reactor of about 1,268 megawatts on Lake Erie, and Davis-Besse is a pressurized water reactor of about 908 megawatts. On top of that, Meta backs 433 megawatts of uprates across Perry, Davis-Besse, and Beaver Valley. Add them together and you get 2,609 megawatts. POWER magazine describes the uprates as the largest ever backed by a corporate customer. Vistra says deliveries begin in late 2026 and build through 2034, and that more than 15 percent of the contracted capacity is new capacity added to the PJM region.

Zach Martin

And that's why the uprates matter. An uprate squeezes more output from a plant that already exists, so it's new megawatts without a new site. Vistra bought these three plants in the 3.4 billion dollar Energy Harbor transaction in March 2024. So the contract does two jobs. It gives revenue visibility, and it supports pursuing subsequent license renewals to keep the plants running for decades.

Emily Martin

Right, and the uprates still need regulatory approval, so even this tier isn't risk free. But compare it with the next two. Oklo is planning up to a 1.2 gigawatt Aurora fast reactor campus in Pike County, Ohio. Meta-backed prepayments are meant to help secure fuel, start site work, and enable phased deployment. Public reporting says the first phase could come online as early as 2030, with the full campus by 2034. Notice the language: as early as, and could.

Zach Martin

Then TerraPower. Meta is funding development of two Natrium reactors, around 345 megawatts each, targeted no earlier than 2032. Meta also gets rights to energy from up to six more units. If everything were built, you'd be at eight units, about 2.8 gigawatts of baseload, plus 1.2 gigawatts of molten salt storage that can lift output to as much as 4 gigawatts at peak.

Emily Martin

So here's the distinction I'd want listeners to hold onto. Signed offtakes on operating plants are one thing. Development agreements and prepayments on reactors that haven't been built are another. Meta said these agreements give Oklo and TerraPower greater business certainty so they can raise capital. That's a real benefit. But it's support for development, not a guarantee of finished power.

Zach Martin

Exactly. And Meta said itself, back in its December 2024 request, that nuclear is more capital intensive, takes longer to develop, and faces more regulation than solar or wind. That's why it's engaging early, which shifts a lot of early risk and capital onto one large customer. Meta also says it pays the full cost of the energy its data centers use, so consumers don't bear those expenses.

Emily Martin

Now the execution risks. First, licensing. Uprates and license renewals go through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the advanced designs need their own approvals, which are newer territory. Second, fuel. Fast reactor designs like these rely on high assay low enriched uranium, and domestic supply is still scaling. I'd flag that as a bottleneck to watch. Third, construction, which is just the hardest thing to do on time and on budget with a first-of-a-kind design.

Zach Martin

Which is why prepayments deserve scrutiny. Money paid early only helps if the milestones get met. If a schedule slips, the question becomes who carries the delay. I'm not predicting that. It's simply the question a disciplined observer keeps asking.

Emily Martin

And this isn't Meta's first move. In June 2025 it announced a twenty-year deal with Constellation for the 1,121 megawatt Clinton plant in Illinois, including a 30 megawatt uprate. Across Big Tech, the pattern is consistent. Microsoft's deal with Constellation to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1, now the Crane Clean Energy Center, at 835 megawatts. Amazon's work with Talen at Susquehanna and with X-energy. Google's agreements with Kairos Power and Constellation. The common thread is that hyperscalers are paying early to secure firm power.

Zach Martin

What stands out about Meta's version is the sequencing. Existing plants and uprates for the near term, then a first-of-a-kind sodium reactor, then an earlier-stage fast reactor for later. Near term, mid term, long term. It's a ladder rather than one big bet.

Emily Martin

And the pressure it answers is real. PJM capacity prices have hit records, and data center growth is a major driver. Whether these projects ease that pressure depends on the timelines holding, so that's what to watch: NRC milestones, fuel availability, and construction progress.

Zach Martin

That's our look at Meta's nuclear portfolio. Again, this is informational only, and the companies we discussed are not recommendations. Thanks for listening to NUCLEAR CAPITAL on I R Hub. Real assets. Real ideas. A brighter tomorrow.