Vistra and Oklo soar on nuclear energy deals with Meta to support data center boom
AI utility darling Vistra and zero-revenues nuclear company Oklo are flying higher on Friday after both companies announced deals with Meta.
Shares of both companies are up double digits as of 7:30 a.m. ET.
The social media giant signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Vistra, which will see it buy the output of three nuclear plants “to support Meta’s operations in the region.” Per the press release, more than 15% of the contracted capacity from this deal will constitute a new addition to the PJM region, home to the nation’s largest power grid and ground zero for rising electricity costs. The pact is reminiscent of Meta’s deal with Constellation Energy in June, another 20-year PPA of what’s generated from a nuclear plant in Illinois.
Meta’s agreement with Oklo “provides a mechanism for Meta to prepay for power and provide funding to advance project certainty for Oklo’s Aurora powerhouse development,” with the nuke company aiming for the first phase to be active as soon as 2030, also “to support Meta’s data centers in the region.”
The Mark Zuckerberg-led firm also struck a deal with privately held firm TerraPower to develop up to eight reactors and storage system plants in the US, the first of which is hoped to be delivered as soon as 2032.
“We believe this news is incrementally positive for the entire nuclear energy industry, including OKLO, as it reaffirms the commitment from hyperscalers to start leveraging new energy sources to fuel the AI Revolution with power being the biggest headwind to the industry,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote.
The Trump administration has touted nuclear energy as a way to solve its competing priorities in the development of artificial intelligence. George Pollack, senior US policy analyst at Signum Global Advisors, has argued that US leadership can realize only two of these three objectives: preside over an AI boom, boost fossil fuel production at the expense of renewables, and avoid household angst over high energy prices. However, the long lead times involved with developing and deploying nuclear power, as two of agreements show, are seemingly incompatible with short-term fixes. On the other hand, the ambitious, multiyear data center build-out plans envisaged by hyperscalers help explain why they’re willing to wait and plan ahead to lock down energy supply.
