Investment in Small Modular Reactors for Carbon-Free Energy

Small modular reactors are key to achieving a carbon-free energy future.

### Advancements in Nuclear Energy and Carbon-Free Goals
* 🔋 The focus on **small modular reactors (SMRs)** highlights their significance in the energy landscape, backed by a **$500 million investment** in Ex Energy, a leader in this technology.
* 🏗 SMRs have advantages such as a **smaller footprint for closer energy placement** and **enhanced safety**, making them a **promising solution for future energy needs**.
* ⚡ Partnerships with utilities like Dominion in Virginia and NRG Northwest aim to implement SMRs, targeting **over five gigawatts of nuclear energy** to **reduce the carbon footprint**.
* 📅 While the exact cost per megawatt hour remains uncertain as technologies are still being developed, there is optimism that these energy sources will **become competitive by 2030**.
* 🏢 The integration of large nuclear plants, alongside SMRs, is essential for achieving a **carbon-free energy landscape**, with plans to bring back **nearly a gigawatt of power** from a Pennsylvania plant.
* 🌱 The goal of **100% renewable energy by 2025** is already being approached, having achieved **100% carbon-free energy** in the current system, emphasizing the need for **sustainable power** as energy demands grow.
* 📈 Amazon has been a leading purchaser of renewable power contracts, ensuring a **steady addition of new power sources** to meet customer needs and **future energy demands**.
* 🖥 Collaboration with companies like NVIDIA and Anthropic continues to yield innovative technologies, with expectations for **production-quality chips and advanced AI models** to enhance **energy solutions**.

It's so thanks for having me to see that. Thank you. To see the Hyperscalers so focused on this, I think we start with why s'mores? Right. That's a very specific avenue to go down. Yeah, I think Summers are a great new technology, and they're an important part of the energy landscape that we're looking at. We made a $500 million investment in a company called Ex Energy that are really I think they're one of the leaders in this space and they're really pushing on the technology smarts. They have a couple of advantages. They're able to be constructed in a smaller footprint, which means you can put them closer to where the energy needs to be. And they're also incredibly safe and easily manufacturable. And so they're a very promising technology. And we're quite excited about our investments in the space and the partnerships that we have coming up. Small modular reactors.

Smiles for those getting in the acronym LINGO. Matt, it's great to have you. What about other deals? I mean, is this the first of many? Yeah. And so a couple of details on the things that we announced yesterday. One, we have this investment with X Energy and as a producer of these, but we also have announced two partnerships with utilities. And so we're actually well down the path ongoing and actually implementing some of these deals. So we have a partnership with Dominion in Virginia to go implement and some are as part of their energy footprint here in Virginia and with NRG Northwest in Washington and Oregon. And our goal is deliver more than five gigawatts of nuclear energy. We think that it's a fantastic opportunity for us to keep pushing on the carbon energy footprint that's needed as we continue to scale around the country. Matt, If you're well down the path and based on what you just said, do you have a clear line of sight on what the dollar

per megawatt hour is going to be out of those facilities? We don't know that yet. We're still early, and we're still learning many of these technologies for these reactors or probably won't come online until 2030. So we'll still be learning there. But we feel that as we scale and in the fullness of time, these energy sources are going to be quite competitive from a cost perspective. And it's one of the reasons that we're so excited about them. Would you bring back a full nuclear plant like Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania? And if so, which one? Well, not I wouldn't have done that one in particular. But we actually have a partnership with Talon where we're bringing more energy online in Pennsylvania. And that's a we're actually the very first company to announce a deal with Talon several months ago. And so I think that some of these large

nuclear plants are also excellent sources of energy, and they're an important part of that. And as I said, I think small modular reactors are going to be a component of what we need for a carbon-free energy world. But large nuclear plants are going to be an important part of that, too. And we've said that will take as much as almost a gigawatt of power that we're bringing back online from this large plant in Pennsylvania, where we'll also be building data centers nearby. So I think it's all an important part of the portfolio as we move to decarbonize the energy. Let's talk about the decarbonization, because back when you announced that deal in March with Susquehanna, you talked about how still the aim is to be by 2025, 100% renewable energy. Is that attainable with a sudden desire to have AI in the energy that goes with it? Yeah.

In fact, we announced that this year we hit 100% carbon-free energy in our system. And I think that now our goal is how do we, as we look at all of the energy demands that the business and the world, frankly, needs, how do we get to a continued path on growing carbon-free energy? And so that's what a lot of these deals are about, is for the future, as we look at power that we're going to need in 25, 27, 30, 2040, how do we make sure that we have a ramp of power so that as the energy needs grow, whether they're from electric vehicles or from companies increasingly digitizing or from generative AI, that we have enough carbon-free energy to support them. And so it's really a long-term view that we have. And part of this is on that long-term view, how we continue to have enough power well into the future.

Let's talk about the short-term view, if we can for a minute, Matt, though, because right here, right now, do you have the power that is necessary from the places you want to be getting it from? We work really hard to make sure that we do. Our business is continuing to grow rapidly, and we're adding new power and new data centers all of the time. And so we continue to look further out. We have power that we're adding in '24, power that we're adding in '25, and continue out. And as you may have heard over the last five years, Amazon has been the single biggest purchaser of renewable power contracts in the world every year for the last five years. And so we continue to do that. We continue to add power to our footprint, and we plan multiple years out because these projects that we go and launch, they take many years to come

online. And so we have lots of plans, and we continue to grow as the needs of our customers grow. Matt, will you have any Blackwell online by the end of this year? No, unfortunately, in videos, timelines have shifted on that. And so, and so we have samples in the lab, and we're working on them right now. But production qualities, our production quantities, we expect to be early next year. We worked very closely with NVIDIA on GPUs and super excited about that launch. And, and Nvidia's own large research cluster is actually launching a database. So we'll have the first production quality is will be in AWP when they're ready. But so right now, we're working with them, and we have early samples. But as they get their yields up from the reception of the black well Chip, it'll probably be early next year before we really get production samples in real volume. Another partnership, then anthropic work

on the chips. How is that going? Briefly. Fantastic. Anthropic continues to deliver fantastic new models. Their Sonnet three five model is one of the most powerful ones that is out there today, and customers are really enjoying using it on a variety of tasks. I think the reasoning is industry and world-class and a bunch of the capabilities that enterprises are able to deliver, and the value they get from those models is really it's fun to watch. And we really enjoy that partnership, and we continue to expect it to go for a long time.

Amazon's Nuclear Ambitions

Welcome to the Bloomberg Technology YouTube channel. Subscribe for original series and mini-docs on game-changing technologies, profiles on innovators, live conversations with experts, and breaking technology news & analysis from Bloomberg TV.

Bloomberg Technology

Investing in Small Modular Reactors for Energy

The company has made a $500 million investment in Ex Energy, a leader in small modular reactor technology.

These reactors have a smaller footprint and are safer and easier to manufacture, making them a promising energy solution.

The company is also partnering with utilities in Virginia and the Northwest to deliver over five gigawatts of nuclear energy, aiming to reduce the carbon energy footprint.

The Future of Nuclear Energy and Decarbonization

The cost of energy from new nuclear reactors is still uncertain, with many not coming online until 2030.

The company has partnered with Talon to bring more energy online in Pennsylvania, including a large nuclear plant.

The goal is to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2025, with AI playing a role in the energy transition.

The company has reached 100% carbon-free energy and aims to continue growing this energy source for the future.

They are focusing on long-term power needs to support increasing demands from electric vehicles, digitization, and generative AI.

The company has been the largest purchaser of renewable power contracts globally for the past five years and is actively adding new power and data centers to meet their growing energy demands.

Blackwell's online production has been delayed, with the first production samples expected early next year.

The company is working closely with NVIDIA on GPUs and their research cluster is launching a database.

The partnership with Anthropic is delivering powerful new models, with their Sonnet three five model being highly regarded by customers.