The AI wave propels the transition to clean energy, with nuclear power becoming the "new favorite" of tech giants.

On Monday local time, Google announced that it had signed an agreement with Kairos Power to purchase electricity from the latter's planned 6-7 small modular reactors (SMRs) with a total capacity of 500 megawatts to meet the increasing power demand. This means Google will become the first company to commission the construction of a new nuclear power station to power its data centers.

Transaction details show that both parties have signed a power purchase agreement, with Kairos planning to deliver the reactors between 2030 and 2035, and the construction site has not yet been determined.

According to media estimates, the power generation capacity of 500 megawatts is expected to meet the electricity needs of a medium-sized city or an AI data center park.

After the news spread, nuclear energy stocks rose, and the stock price of Oklo, a U.S. nuclear energy startup invested in by Sam Altman, once jumped by 10%, and continued to rise after the market closed.

Michael Terrell, Google's senior director of energy and climate, said that the agreement is "a milestone in Google's 15-year journey to clean energy":

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"Nuclear energy will play an important role in meeting Google's energy needs and can achieve this goal in a cleaner and more stable way."

When asked whether these reactors will be connected to the power grid or directly connected to the data center, Terrell said Google is considering all options.

Industry insiders analyze that this reflects an industry trend: benefiting from higher efficiency and lower costs, the nuclear power industry may abandon large nuclear power stations and embrace small reactors.

Starting in 2010, a group of technology companies led by Google began to sign power purchase agreements with renewable energy developers to reduce technology costs.As AI technology drives a surge in power demand for data centers, nuclear power is becoming the "new favorite" of tech giants.

In September, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison announced in a conference call for financial results that the company is designing a data center that is expected to require more than 1 gigawatt of electricity, which will be powered by three small nuclear reactors.

Last month, Microsoft signed a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear reactor operator in the United States, to purchase electricity—the Three Mile Island agreement, which will restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant and sell all its electricity to Microsoft.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet, also "foreshadowed" in a recent interview with Nikkei Asia that Google is studying the use of nuclear energy, this potentially enabled "green" energy, to generate electricity for its data centers.