AI to go nuclear? Data center deals say it’s inevitable

“The future will be dependent on increased innovation in hardware and chip efficiency and advances in data center technology like liquid cooling plus advances in edge computing, which reduces the dependency on large, centralized centers,” he maintains.

Mega data centers on tap

Still, nuclear-fueled data centers are not within reach of just anyone, CIOs included. Only major data center operators such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Apple have deep enough pockets and industry influence to enable access to nuclear assets or build a nuclear-based SMR market, says Ashish Nadkarni, group vice president and general manager of worldwide infrastructure research at IDC.

“If they can demonstrate that the nuclear SMRs are quote-unquote ‘green’ and they are relatively low risk than some of the other carbon-based power generators, then I suppose it has a promising trajectory,” Nadkarni says. “But how are they going to take care of the black-eye situations that nuclear power has …. managing nuclear waste and spent fuel? On paper, at least, nuclear power is the best green power we can get and deploy but it can lead to catastrophe.”