America's electricity grid is facing a demand shock unlike anything in a generation, and the question of how to meet it is reshaping the politics of energy. Data centers are projected to consume roughly 8 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030, up from about 3 percent in 2022, according to Goldman Sachs Research. The International Energy Agency has projected that global data center electricity consumption will more than double by 2030, with the United States accounting for the largest share of that growth. Hyperscale operators need what the grid has struggled to provide: massive quantities of firm, carbon-free, round-the-clock power on timelines measured in years, not decades.
The scramble is already visible. Microsoft has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island. Amazon Web Services acquired a data-center campus co-located with Pennsylvania's Susquehanna nuclear plant. Google has signed agreements with small modular reactor developers and is exploring direct nuclear procurement for its facilities. Meta has issued requests for proposals seeking nuclear capacity. The common thread: the hyperscalers have concluded, after years of renewable-first procurement, that wind and solar — even paired with batteries and natural gas — cannot by themselves deliver the reliability profile that a 200-megawatt AI training cluster requires. They are turning to nuclear because the math of AI load growth has forced them to.
