Meta strikes deals with Vistra, Oklo, TerraPower

On January 9, tech giant Meta made waves by announcing three new agreements with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo. These deals aim to see Meta supporting both uprates at existing nuclear power plants and the development of new advanced reactor projects, and in total could see the company financing up to 6.6 GW of new and existing energy by 2035. These projects will support the hyperscaler's ever-growing data center- and AI-driven energy needs.

A year in the making: These three agreements stem from a request for proposals that Meta put out in December 2024. This RFP slotted into the company's broader strategy of investing in a wide variety of clean energy technologies, including solar, wind, battery storage, and geothermal. At the time, Meta aimed to have anywhere from 1 to 4 GW of new nuclear capacity, starting in the early 2030s.

In the 2024 RFP, Meta said that it had previously invested in renewable energy at a time when the industry was scaling. This strategy was one that Meta wanted to repeat in the nuclear industry, especially given that nuclear projects are "more capital intensive, take longer to develop, are subject to more regulatory requirements, and have a longer expected operational life."

Aside from early engagement, Meta said that it sought to work with a partner across multiple projects and locations, saying that scaling deployment offered the best chance to rapidly reduce cost. The company also was seeking partners who would "ultimately permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate these power plants," in order to "ensure the long-term thinking necessary to accelerate nuclear technology."

TerraPower details: Meta's new agreement with TerraPower will provide funding to support the development of two new Natrium units. Natrium is TerraPower's flagship design, a 345-MW sodium fast reactor. This reactor is coupled with the company's molten salt energy storage system, which TerraPower says can boost the system's output to 500 MW of power when needed.

Beyond these initial two units, the agreement "also provides Meta with rights for energy from up to six other Natrium units" targeted for delivery by 2035. Between these eight total units, this deal accounts for 2.8 GW of generation capacity, along with 1.2 GW of built-in storage. According to Meta, it's the company's "largest support of advanced nuclear technologies to date." Currently, no siting information has been provided.

Oklo details: Meta's partnership with Oklo will center on an entirely new facility in Pike County, Ohio. This "advanced nuclear technology campus" is targeted to come on line as early as 2030 and will provide up to 1.2 GW directly into the PJM market through the deployment of multiple Aurora Powerhouse units-the company's flagship liquid metal-cooled, metal-fueled fast reactor.

Meta did not detail how many units it plans to deploy at the site. However, if each unit has the same capacity as the 75-MWe Aurora-INL, this agreement could entail the deployment of up to 16 reactors.

Vistra details: Looking away from new builds, Meta is also planning to support uprates at Perry, Davis-Besse, and Beavery Valley nuclear power plants through its partnership with Vistra. Meta said that these expansions "will be the largest nuclear uprates supported by a corporate customer in the U.S."

Meta and Vistra expect to add 433 MW in total capacity across the three sites by the early 2030s.