Google signs 20-year nuclear deal with Constellation Energy to power its AI expansion

Google has closed a $4.3 billion deal with Constellation Energy to add 890 megawatts of nuclear power through a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA). The news sent Constellation's stock up more than 12%, while shares in Google's parent company, Alphabet, remained flat — a market reaction that underscores how much value investors see in these long-term energy supply contracts for nuclear operators compared with the more diluted impact such deals have for a giant like Alphabet.

The new capacity will come from upgrades to six existing nuclear plants in Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and will include improvements such as modernized turbines, steam generators and digital control systems. According to Google itself, the deal gives Constellation the revenue certainty it needs to invest in upgrading 11 of its reactors, while ensuring that the utility's other customers do not take on additional costs stemming from the AI boom. In other words, the surge in energy demand from artificial intelligence data centers is financed directly through the contract with Google, rather than passed on to other consumers.

One striking detail of the deal is that Constellation will use Google's Gemini Enterprise software for tasks such as site selection, outage management and infrastructure protection. This adds another layer to the agreement: it is not just that Google is buying electricity to power its AI infrastructure, but that it is also placing its own artificial intelligence tools inside the operations of the nuclear plant that supplies it — an exchange that strengthens the commercial relationship between the two companies beyond a simple energy transaction.

Beyond the 890 megawatts, Google and Constellation also signed a 15-year energy supply agreement for an additional 2.7 gigawatts of power. The company further noted that it has already invested in other nuclear projects in the United States, specifically in Georgia, Iowa and Tennessee, confirming that this deal with Constellation is part of a broader strategy by Google to diversify its nuclear energy sources, rather than an isolated move.

The agreement adds to an already established trend among Big Tech companies, which are turning to nuclear power to cover their growing energy needs driven by the massive rollout of artificial intelligence infrastructure. In January, Amazon signed a deal with Constellation itself; Microsoft had closed a 20-year agreement with the company in 2024 to obtain power from a previously shut-down reactor at Three Mile Island, which is expected to come online in 2028; and Meta, for its part, signed a 20-year deal to buy power from Vistra's plants. According to the article, these companies are also investing in small modular reactors (SMRs), compact power plants designed to supply a few megawatts, in contrast to conventional reactors that exceed a gigawatt of capacity (a figure that, for reference, would be enough to supply around 800,000 homes).

Taken together, these moves reflect how the AI race is reshaping the U.S. energy map: Big Tech companies are turning to nuclear as a clean, baseload source capable of sustaining the constant operation of data centers, despite the stigma that has historically surrounded the technology. For utilities like Constellation, these long-term contracts represent a direct financing route to modernize and extend the working life of existing reactors, shifting the cost of the AI demand boom onto those generating it rather than onto traditional household consumers.