Google has said that its data centre growth, fuelled by the artificial intelligence boom, led the company to reach a power-purchase agreement involving the upgrade of six nuclear plants in the US. An essay posted to Google's corporate news detailed the agreement made with Constellation, which operates the "largest fleet of nuclear facilities in the US".Through the PPA, Google says it is essentially enabling more than "1.5GW of new nuclear capacity for the US energy system from increasing the power output of existing reactors and bringing dormant facilities back online". Technology companies continue to come under criticism in the US over the rise in data centre construction. The centres cause energy demand to surge in some areas and lead to an increase in electricity prices for consumers. "As our data centre investments in the US continue, so does our commitment to revitalise the nation’s energy supply, support local jobs and economic opportunity, and bring new reliable electricity capacity to strengthen US grids at no cost to other ratepayers," Google said.The company said that as part of the PPA, Constellation had agreed to use the technology company's agentic AI "workflows across its core operations to accelerate uprate planning, streamline construction and optimise plant output". Nuclear criticismGoogle is the latest among Big Tech firms to support nuclear reactors in the U...
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