What happened

The company’s president, Mark Zuckerberg, was already ready to make a deal with the operator of a nearby nuclear power plant to power the data center and thus avoid greenhouse gas emissions. But last week employees were told it was no longer possible to keep the deal because A rare bee species was discovered on the land allocated for the projectChannel 24 reports, citing the Financial Times.

Zuckerberg reportedly told his employees the following if the deal goes through: Meta will receive the first nuclear-powered artificial intelligence. This could still become a reality if the company can find a way, but it will need to act quickly as its biggest rivals are also investing in nuclear energy.

• Microsoft announced in September that it plans to revive the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to power AI developments.
• Meanwhile, Google has teamed up with Kairos Power to build seven small nuclear reactors in the US to power data centers starting in 2030.
• And there’s Amazon, which announced in mid-October that it had struck three deals with various companies to build small modular reactors.

The source did not know whether Meta was looking for a new site that did not protect animals. All that is known is that Meta is exploring various proposals for using emissions-free energy, including nuclear, to power future AI data centers.