TLDR:
Microsoft is tapping the site of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania to power its artificial intelligence boom, investing $1.6 billion in the revival of the plant to provide carbon-free electricity for data centers.
Key Elements:
- Constellation Energy will invest $1.6 billion to revive the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
- Microsoft will buy all the output from the plant to power data centers for its artificial intelligence operations.
The Three Mile Island nuclear plant, which experienced the worst U.S. nuclear accident almost half a century ago, will have one of its two units reopened by Constellation Energy in 2028. The other unit, closed in 2019 due to economic concerns, will be brought back into service to meet the power needs of Microsoft. This move has caused shares of Constellation Energy to rise significantly, with expectations of meeting the growing demand for green energy in the tech industry.
Overall, this partnership highlights the increasing demand for sustainable energy sources to power the digital infrastructure that supports artificial intelligence technologies, and the innovative ways in which companies are collaborating to meet these challenges.