Google has signed a 20-year contract to buy nuclear power from Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear plant operator in the US. The deal adds 890 megawatts (MW) of new capacity by upgrading existing reactors, and Constellation will invest more than $4.3 billion in the work. Both companies call it historic.
What the deal covers
The agreement was announced on October 6 and has two parts. The first is the 20-year power purchase agreement for 890 MW from several Constellation nuclear plants, which will be upgraded to produce more electricity. According to Reuters, the first upgraded plant is expected to deliver power in 2028.
The second is a 15-year supply agreement for another 2,700 MW that is not tied to one specific power source. Together, Google contracted 3,590 MW (3.6 gigawatts) on the PJM grid, the largest power grid in the country. New nuclear output makes up about a quarter of that total.
The reactors are in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 11 nuclear units in all. The upgrades target thermal and electrical efficiency using new equipment and more advanced technology. No new plant will be built. The Wall Street Journal, as cited by Xataka, compares the gain to building one large new reactor and calls it the biggest modernization project ever carried out between a nuclear provider and a tech company.
Why Google wants it
Data centers already use a lot of electricity, and AI has made the demand much worse, because modern language models need far more powerful infrastructure than traditional servers. The Journal reports that some data centers need power on the scale of a city.
The grid in question is under strain. Reuters says PJM capacity prices have risen more than 11-fold since 2024 and that the grid faces a power shortfall. PJM has even proposed that data center customers bring their own power or risk being shut off remotely during peak demand. The companies describe the contract as a response to that proposal.
Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global head of energy and power, said the company is committed to meeting its growth responsibly. Google says the deal sets up a practical model for large power users to expand supply without state or federal mandates. Joe Dominguez, Constellation’s chairman, president and CEO, called it a model for how technology companies and the energy industry can work together.
AI goes inside the power plant too
The package includes an alliance called “AI for Energy.” Google will give Constellation access to Google Cloud and Gemini Enterprise, which Constellation says will help with site selection, maintenance and equipment health, and protection of critical infrastructure. In other words, Google is not only buying electricity for its AI, it is bringing AI to the people who generate it. For context on Google’s AI products, see what changed in free Gemini.
The two companies also agreed on a framework that could be repeated elsewhere in the US, covering power generation, battery storage and demand response.
How this fits a pattern
The deal follows others. Constellation previously agreed to restart its Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania for Microsoft’s data centers, and Google signed a contract to restart NextEra Energy’s nuclear plant in Iowa. The difference this time is that the money goes to expanding plants that are already running, not to bringing idle ones back.
What we still don’t know
The reporting does not give the price of the electricity, a full construction timeline beyond the first delivery in 2028, or the names of the individual reactors. For more on the hardware side of Google, see our look at the Intel Googlebooks. Constellation’s shares rose more than 13% to $304.04 in mid-morning trading on the day of the announcement, according to Reuters.
