Dive Brief:
- Oklo could deploy 12 GW of new reactor capacity over the next 20 years through a master power agreement with data center developer Switch, the advanced nuclear technology company said today.
- The nonbinding agreement “establishes a framework for collaboration, with the expectation that individual binding agreements will be finalized as project milestones are reached,” Oklo said.
- Pending development milestones, initial deployments of Oklo’s 50-MWe Aurora powerhouse under the deal could begin in 2029, and the company is “exploring 100+ MW designs for future scalability,” Oklo spokesperson Bonita Chester said.
Dive Insight:
The Oklo-Switch deal represents “one of the largest corporate power agreements in history,” Oklo said. It is larger than a 10.5-GW deal announced in May between Microsoft and Brookfield Asset Management that was “almost eight times larger than the largest single corporate [power purchase agreement] ever signed,” a Brookfield executive said at the time.
The five-year Microsoft-Brookfield deal focused on deploying wind, solar and “new or impactful carbon free energy generation technologies,” the companies said in a May 1 news release.
Though the Oklo-Switch agreement is not yet binding on either party, it envisions Oklo deploying Aurora powerhouses to provide electricity to Switch data centers “through a series of power purchase agreements,” Oklo said. The 20-year time horizon — through 2044 — “will help accelerate Oklo’s early powerhouse deployments and also position the Company to scale in response to a growing demand pipeline,” Oklo said.
The agreement increases Oklo’s order book from a previously announced 2.1 GW to “approximately 14 GW,” Chester said.
Switch has powered its “AI, cloud, and enterprise data center infrastructure … [supporting] the computing needs of some of the world’s largest companies” with 100% renewable energy since 2016, procuring nearly 984 GWh of clean power annually, Oklo said.
In a statement, Oklo cofounder and CEO Jacob DeWitte said the two companies share a vision for nuclear energy’s role in powering AI data centers.
Unlike other advanced nuclear technology companies that plan to develop and license reactors to third-party operators, Oklo will develop, own and operate its power plants and sell electricity and heat to customers. The company previously announced nonbinding agreements or “pre-agreements” with data center companies Equinix and Prometheus Hyperscale, and oil and gas producer Diamondback Energy.
Oklo is proceeding with early site work at Idaho National Laboratory, where it plans to deploy its first 15-MW reactor in late 2027, it said in a November investor update. It plans to submit an initial combined license application for the 15-MW design in 2025, followed closely by subsequent applications for early commercial deployments, Oklo cofounder and CEO Jacob DeWitt said in the update.
News of the Oklo-Switch agreement follows a busy dealmaking period between advanced nuclear companies and data center operators. In October, Amazon and Google announced respective agreements with X-energy and Kairos Power that could together deploy 5.5 GW of nuclear capacity by the end of the 2030s. Earlier this month, Meta issued a request for proposals for up to 4 GW of nuclear capacity to be delivered beginning in the early 2030s.
