Google and Constellation Energy unveiled a 20-year nuclear power agreement this week that will expand output at 11 existing reactors in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, part of an escalating push by the tech giant to secure massive amounts of electricity for artificial intelligence data centers.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the deal is structured around an 890-megawatt power-purchase agreement. The upgrades at the plants would be the equivalent of adding a new large reactor to the grid, and Constellation — the nation’s largest owner of nuclear reactors — is calling it the largest “uprate” project ever struck between a nuclear power provider and a technology company. Constellation plans to invest more than $4.3 billion in the plants, with the first uprate expected in 2028 and construction continuing through 2032 or 2033.
A Second Deal Adds 2,700 Megawatts
Beyond the 20-year agreement, the two companies also signed a separate 15-year supply deal covering an additional 2,700 megawatts of electricity in the PJM power market, which spans the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Under the arrangement, Google and Constellation intend to collaborate on new power generation, battery storage and demand response programs.
Constellation chief executive Joe Dominguez framed the agreement as a long-discussed project that only became feasible once Google committed financial backing. “These are expensive things to be done, and we’ve known that we could do this for a number of years now,” he said. “But it’s really Google stepping up to the plate and providing the financial backing for us to be able to bring on what is effectively a new reactor.”
Dominguez’s reference to “a new reactor” reflects the scale of the uprate: rather than building a reactor from scratch, the project squeezes additional generating capacity out of machines already connected to the grid.
Speed and Clean Power — and a Defense of Data Centers
Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global head of energy and power, said the company prioritized power sources that could be brought online quickly without abandoning its environmental targets. “The speed to firm, clean power in a responsible way was incredibly important to us,” she said, adding that the agreement arrives “in a moment where data centers are under a lot of criticism.”
That criticism has grown as AI workloads strain regional electric grids and spur debates over ratepayer costs, land use and emissions. Nuclear power — which produces carbon-free electricity around the clock — has emerged as a preferred answer for technology companies seeking both scale and climate credibility.
Part of a Broader Google Nuclear Push
The Constellation agreement is the latest in a series of nuclear moves by Google. Last month, the company said it would support nuclear-plant upgrades in Georgia. It is also working with NextEra Energy to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center, a nuclear reactor in Iowa, and has partnered with reactor developer Kairos Power to purchase electricity from its projects.
Constellation has pursued similar arrangements elsewhere in the tech sector. Breitbart News previously reported that the company is partnering with Microsoft to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania — a $1.6 billion investment aimed at reviving one of the site’s two reactors, which has been dormant since 2019 after it could no longer compete economically. The plant’s other reactor was permanently closed nearly half a century ago following the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.
Microsoft’s decision to join with Constellation underscored the intensifying demand for clean power as the tech industry confronts the energy-intensive nature of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Data centers sit at the center of that demand, consuming vast amounts of electricity while their operators face pressure to shrink their carbon footprints.
The Politics of AI Power
The electricity needs of AI data centers are also reshaping the political landscape. Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall has written the New York Times bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, which the outlet describes as a guide for how the MAGA movement can craft positions on AI that benefit humanity without ceding control of the technology to Silicon Valley’s left or allowing China to dominate the field.
For Constellation, the arrangement with Google represents a bet that existing nuclear plants — often the subject of closure debates as cheaper natural gas and renewables undercut them — can be profitably upgraded rather than retired. For Google, it is another attempt to line up firm, carbon-free generation years before the electricity is needed. The first new capacity from the uprate is not expected to reach the grid until 2028, with the remainder of the construction running well into the next decade.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2026/10/11/google-signs-20-year-nuclear-deal-with-constellation-energy/