Facebook parent company Meta Platforms said Tuesday it had reached a 20-year deal with power giant Constellation Energy that will keep a large nuclear plant in Illinois running — helping fuel the huge power needs of Meta's AI push. Meta stock pulled back slightly while Constellation and other nuclear stocks jumped.
Under the 20-year power purchase agreement, Meta will buy up the output of the 1,091 megawatt Clinton Clean Energy Center nuclear plant. The plant is up for relicensing in two years. Meta's deal will support the plant's relicensing and boost the energy center's output by 30 megawatts, according to Constellation. Further financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
"Securing clean, reliable energy is necessary to continue advancing our AI ambitions," Urvi Parekh, head of global energy at Meta, said in the news release.
Meta Still Seeking Nuclear Partners After Constellation Deal
Meanwhile, Meta said in a company blog post Tuesday that it is still reviewing proposals from a request in December for nuclear projects that could provide one to four gigawatts of power. The company has received more than 50 submissions, it said. It will prioritize sites where "nuclear development can be advanced quickly with high degrees of certainty."
Meta joins Amazon, Microsoft and Google parent company Alphabet — the four cloud "hyperscalers" — in working with nuclear energy providers, as AI applications are expected to ramp up demand for energy from data centers. The companies are working to still meet clean energy goals and emissions goals despite the vast power required to train and operate AI algorithms.
Meta stands out among hyperscalers. It does not rent out its huge cloud data center capacity to other enterprises, the model that powers Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Meta's data center capacity is used to power its massive social media empire. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has previously told investors that its big investments in AI cloud infrastructure — including energy — will pay off because AI can boost engagement and monetization on Facebook, Instagram and its other apps.
Meta stock gained Monday following a report from the Wall Street Journal that the company will user AI to offer fully automated advertising campaigns by late next year.
Meta Stock: Cup-With-Handle Buy Point
On the stock market today, Meta stock is down a half-percent at 667.50 in recent trades. Shares gained more than 3.5% on Monday. That fueled a breakout past a 662.67 cup-with-handle buy point, according to the IBD MarketSurge pattern recognition tool. The stock also reached its highest point since March 3.
After slumping nearly 20% from March through April, Meta stock rallied back 18% in May. Strong first quarter results and the 90-day pause for President Donald Trump's tariffs on good from China helped ease some investor concerns.
While still below highs from mid-February, Meta's shares are ahead 13% overall in 2025. That is the best overall year-to-date gain among the Magnificent Seven stocks.
