Amazon is investing in 12 nuclear reactors to power its data centres

These are 12 small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), a new generation of reactors that are more compact than traditional ones and have a capacity ranging from 20 to 300 megawatts of electricity. Amazon wants them; they will be built in Indiana, on the site of a former coal-fired power station, and will be used to power the data centres of the company founded by Jeff Bezos.

The announcement was made byAmazon itself, which explains that the plant will have a capacity of 960 megawatts and will be operated by American Electric Power. The reactors, meanwhile, will be designed by X-energy, a company specialising in SMRs in which Amazon itself had invested $700 million in October 2024. The plant will house 12 X3-100 reactors and will be built south of Terre Haute, in Vigo County, on land that once housed a coal-fired power station, which has since been demolished. Although the e-commerce giant will be the main consumer of the energy produced, the facility will still be connected to the public electricity grid.

This is the second agreement between Amazon and X-energy, following the one to build small modular reactor plants in Virginia, announced in 2024. The collaboration between the two companies aims to complete nuclear power stations with a total capacity of 5 gigawatts in the United States alone by 2039.

According to TechCrunch, meeting this deadline will also depend on X-energy’s ability to complete its first plant in Texas, near Houston. The facility, situated in the small town of Seadrift – a town of around a thousand inhabitants on the Texas coast – is at the centre of a lawsuit brought by the state, which alleges that the company has failed to comply with regulations and permits relating to water use and waste management.