Google CEO eyeing electricity from nuclear plants for its data centers

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is considering using electricity from nuclear plants to power his company’s data centers, as the tech giant contends with the expansive energy demands of artificial intelligence (AI).

Pichai also plans to increase Google’s investment in solar and thermal power, he said in an interview with Nikkei.

“We are now looking at additional investments, be it solar, and evaluating technologies like small modular nuclear reactors, etc.,” Pichai told the outlet while in Tokyo. 

AI requires vast amounts of energy. A single ChatGPT inquiry requires nearly 10 times the amount of electricity as a typical Google search, and generating images uses more than 60 times as much energy as generating text.

To feed this energy-hungry technology, some tech companies are turning to nuclear power. Microsoft announced last month that it struck a deal to reopen Three Mile Island, the site of a partial nuclear meltdown in 1979, to power its data centers.  

The drive for new energy sources also comes as Big Tech seeks to balance its energy needs with its previous commitments to cut emissions. 

Google, which aims to become net zero by the end of the decade, revealed in July that its greenhouse gas emissions rose 13 percent in 2023 and were up 48 percent since 2019. 

It pointed to AI, noting in its annual environmental report that reducing emissions might be a challenge “due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute.” 

“It was a very ambitious target and we are still going to be working very ambitiously towards it,” Pichai told Nikkei. “Obviously, the trajectory of AI investments has added to the scale of the task needed.”