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  7. Why Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta Invest in Nuclear Power: Exploring Tech Giants' Role in the Nuclear Renaissance

Why Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta Invest in Nuclear Power: Exploring Tech Giants' Role in the Nuclear Renaissance

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Video by: CNBC
Discover why major tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta are investing in nuclear power and reshaping the future of energy consumption. Learn how the increasing power demand driven by data centers and technology advancements is driving the nuclear renaissance and reshoring of clean energy options.
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Video Transcript

0:00
A Chad GPT query uses about 10 times as much electricity as a Google search.
0:05
That difference is the catalyst for a new era of energy consumption, one where our evolving
0:10
technology demands are now reshaping how the U.S. and the world power our future.
0:15
Nuclear energy at a turning point, see momentum as power demand jumps from electrification
0:20
in data centers.
0:21
Nuclear power and technology, or big tech getting involved in it, nuclear power has
0:26
sort of gotten back into the conversation.
0:28
We're going to be way ahead of A.I. and we've got to produce tremendous amounts of electricity.
0:33
We're in the midst of a nuclear renaissance right now.
0:35
And that's because power demand is meaningfully rising for the first time in a few decades.
0:39
And at the moment, we just don't have enough clean energy options to meet that power demand from things like
0:45
reshoring, electrification, as well as data centers.
0:48
This is why big tech is betting on nuclear power.
0:59
Data centers around the world built by tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google are hungry, not just for
1:05
AI training sets, but for energy.
1:08
Artificial intelligence driven by massive computing power
1:11
is reshaping not only how we work,
1:13
but also how we think about energy consumption.
1:16
What AI did is it escalated the power demand
1:19
at individual data centers by a factor of 10,
1:22
or even 100 if we're looking forward into the future.
1:25
That means those are data centers
1:27
that are needing power along the same scale
1:31
as entire cities.
1:32
The Department of Energy
1:33
estimates global electricity demand could rise from a third to three quarters by 2050,
1:38
with the U.S. energy grid seeing an unprecedented strain.
1:41
Data centers powering artificial intelligence and cloud computing will be among the biggest
1:45
contributors to this growing demand.
1:48
Energy use was already slowly ticking up, but oil and gas prices skyrocketed as energy
1:53
powerhouse Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and geopolitical volatility was on the rise.
1:59
That's really when these dialogues started to happen again in earnest.
2:02
the idea of what is energy security,
2:04
what does energy independence mean?
2:06
And that's when we saw countries
2:07
start to look at nuclear once again.
2:09
As open AI introduced chat GPT to the masses
2:12
in November 2022, the buzz and investment
2:15
around large language models put the US on a path
2:17
to an AI future and the energy demands that come with it.
2:22
It wasn't the tech company's problem
2:24
to understand how electricity worked.
2:26
They knew that they could build a data center,
2:29
plug into the grid, and there was enough power.
2:31
And then their marketing people made sure that they had enough renewable energy credits to claim that they're actually using renewables to power their data center.
2:39
And so really right now everyone is trying to play catch up of how are we going to meet all of these power demand goals as well as reduce our emissions.
2:47
And so that's where nuclear comes into the picture. Solar and wind are great, but they're intermittent resources.
2:53
That means that it's not always sunny. It's not always windy. So they aren't 24-7.
2:57
And what nuclear is, is it's 24-7 base load emissions free energy.
3:06
Major tech companies are leading the charge.

Video Summary & Chapters

No chapters for this video generated yet.

Video Transcript

0:00
A Chad GPT query uses about 10 times as much electricity as a Google search.
0:05
That difference is the catalyst for a new era of energy consumption, one where our evolving
0:10
technology demands are now reshaping how the U.S. and the world power our future.
0:15
Nuclear energy at a turning point, see momentum as power demand jumps from electrification
0:20
in data centers.
0:21
Nuclear power and technology, or big tech getting involved in it, nuclear power has
0:26
sort of gotten back into the conversation.
0:28
We're going to be way ahead of AI and we've got to produce tremendous amounts of electricity.
0:33
We're in the midst of a nuclear renaissance right now and that's because power demand is meaningfully rising for the first time in a few decades.
0:39
And at the moment we just...
0:40
don't have enough clean energy options to meet that power demand from things like
0:45
reshoring, electrification, as well as data centers. This is why big tech is
0:49
betting on nuclear power. Data centers around the world built by tech giants
1:01
like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google are hungry not just for AI training sets
1:06
but for energy. Artificial intelligence driven by massive computing power is
1:11
reshaping not only how we work but also how we think about energy consumption.
1:15
What AI did is it escalated the power demand at individual data centers by a factor of 10 or even 100 if we're looking forward into the future.
1:25
That means those are data centers that are needing power along the same scale as entire cities.
1:32
The Department of Energy estimates global electricity demand could rise from a third to three quarters by 2050, with the U.S.
1:39
energy grid seeing an unprecedented strain.
1:41
Data centers powering artificial intelligence
1:43
and cloud computing will be among the biggest contributors
1:46
to this growing demand.
1:48
Energy use was already slowly ticking up,
1:50
but oil and gas prices skyrocketed
1:52
as energy powerhouse Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022,
1:56
and geopolitical volatility was on the rise.
1:59
That's really when these dialogues started to happen again
2:01
in earnest, the idea of what is energy security,
2:04
what is energy independence mean,
2:06
and that's when we saw countries start to look
2:08
at nuclear once again.
2:09
As OpenAI introduced Chat GPT to the masses in November 2022.
2:13
to, the buzz and investment around large language models
2:16
put the US on a path to an AI future
2:19
and the energy demands that come with it.
2:22
It wasn't the tech company's problem
2:24
to understand how electricity worked.
2:26
They knew that they could build a data center,
2:29
plug into the grid, and there was enough power.
2:31
And then their marketing people made sure
2:33
that they had enough renewable energy credits
2:35
to claim that they're actually using renewables
2:38
to power their data center.
2:39
And so really right now, everyone is trying to play catch up
2:42
of how are we going to meet all of these power demand goals as well as
2:46
reduce our emissions. And so that's where nuclear comes into the
2:49
picture. Solar and wind are great, but they're intermittent resources.
2:53
That means that it's not always sunny.
2:54
It's not always windy. So they aren't 24-7.
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