Bees buzzkill Meta's nuclear-powered AI dreams: Rare species halts data centre plans

A rare bee species discovery has halted Meta's plans for a nuclear-powered AI data centre, throwing their big nuclear move off course.

In Short

• Meta's nuclear AI data centre plans halted by rare bees
• Zuckerberg cites regulatory hurdles due to bee discovery
• Rivals Microsoft, Google, Amazon pursue nuclear energy for AI

Meta’s big plans for a nuclear-powered AI data centre have been stung –– by bees. The tech giant, eyeing a site in the US for its groundbreaking facility, faced an unexpected hurdle when a rare bee species was discovered buzzing around the proposed land, as reported by the Financial Times. The find threw a wrench into Meta’s ambitious vision, which included a partnership with a nuclear plant operator for emissions-free energy, ready to power Meta’s next AI leap.

At an all-hands meeting last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly explained to his team that although Meta was ready to dive into nuclear energy, the bee discovery brought regulatory hurdles too large to overcome. If the plans had gone through, Meta would have held the crown as the first company with a nuclear-powered AI data centre. But for now, those dreams have been put on hold, leaving Meta to rethink where, or if, it will restart its plans elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Meta’s rivals aren’t waiting around. Microsoft is breathing new life into the Three Mile Island nuclear facility for its AI needs, while Google has already penned a deal with startup Kairos Power to set up seven small nuclear reactors by 2030. Even Amazon has joined the race, partnering with companies to develop small modular reactors of its own.

The race for nuclear energy is heating up as AI demands unprecedented levels of power. Just to train a large language model like GPT-3, companies use the same amount of energy as 130 homes in the US consume in a year. A single AI chatbot response can consume up to 10 times the power of a standard Google search. With AI’s appetite for power growing, companies like Meta have poured billions into infrastructure, as Zuckerberg highlighted in their recent earnings call, stating Meta’s $9.2 billion investment into servers and data centres.

For now, Meta’s nuclear dreams remain on pause, as CFO Susan Li revealed that their computing needs have already outstripped available data centre capacity. Yet with nuclear power back in the spotlight for carbon-neutral energy, Meta’s search for a bee-free site might just be the beginning of a new chapter in tech’s pursuit of sustainable AI.