Our thinking

Fission mission

18 October, 2024

It’s recently become clear that AI’s rapid growth is going to be an important technological, economic and – given its thirsty appetite for energy – environmental force. And that with volatile energy markets, AI companies have a big energy puzzle looming.

Tech companies have long been getting ahead of this volatility in energy by purchasing future energy contracts. Some are now getting involved in their own power generation. This week, Google announced a deal with Kairos Power to source nuclear electricity via small modular reactors, the first deal of its kind. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Amazon are reviving existing large reactors.

These developments are interesting. For starters, they demonstrate the sheer scale of AI’s growth and the corresponding growth in energy demands – tech companies haven’t needed to source their energy in this way before. But there is also the choice of energy. Nuclear has the advantage of providing round-the-clock power in the way fossil fuels do, but without the carbon emissions. Yet it’s not without environmental and social problems, and the projects take a long time to develop – Google isn’t expected to get energy from Kairos Power until 2030.

This adds another twist to the tale – the fact that Google has chosen these small, new nuclear reactors to accelerate the development of this new technology, which has the potential to offer simpler, safer nuclear solutions.

The arguments around nuclear in all forms are complex, but we need all the tools at our disposal to tackle the climate crisis, and where technology can help abate its own impact, all the better.

By Patrick Bapty