Google collaborates with Kairos Power, to meet the electricity demand of artificial intelligence (AI). According to Reuters, Google announced on Monday that it has signed an agreement to buy power from multiple small modular reactors (SMR) from Kairos Power. The tech giant claims that no other company has done something similar to this.
The tech giant aims to be the world’s first company to buy SMRs through this partnership. By 2030 the partnership will come into action and more reactors are expected to come by 2035. Additionally, it has other plans to improve the current AI structure. Let’s have a look at the upcoming plans Google has lined up.
Nuclear power to power AI
For the past few years, AI has been gaining quite a lot of popularity. However, the larger demands of AI have highlighted the need of energy plants to power AI. So, in order to meet the demand for power supply, Google will be partnering with Kairos Power.
Google also aims to maintain a clean and renewable usage of AI through this partnership. The company plans to create a reliable and steady power supply to support the increasing demand of AI in India. But how does buying SMRs help in improving AI structure? So, small modular reactors are designed to be more flexible, concise and potentially cost-effective than traditional reactors. This not only helps companies to get affordable power supply, but also spend less on the supply chain. Most SMR’s are built on-site, so it’s more cost effective. However, critics argue that due to scarcity of SMR’s, it might not be a good approach economically.
However, Kairos Power needs to get a full design and construction permit from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It also needs permits from local agencies which may take a year to process.
Other updates
Google also plans to buy about 500 megawatts of power from around six to seven reactors. These will be smaller nuclear power plants. As of now the location of these reactors and the financial details are not officially confirmed.
Furthermore, “We feel like nuclear power can play an important role in helping to meet our demand … cleanly in a way that’s more around the clock,” Michael Terrell, senior director for energy and climate, Google, concluded.
Well Google is not the only company to address the rising demand for AI. Last year Amazon had also acquired a nuclear-powered data center from Talen Energy. Also, Microsoft had signed a deal with Constellation Energy. This deal was done to help improve the reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
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