Meta will buy 1.1 GW of nuclear energy for 20 years from Constellation's Clinton plant

Meta has committed to a 20-year agreement with Constellation to purchase 1.1 gigawatts of nuclear energy from the Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois, beginning in 2027. The energy agreement is intended to fuel Meta’s growing artificial intelligence infrastructure and data centers as energy needs rise for the tech industry.

Once slated to close in 2017 due to financial losses, the Clinton facility’s future is now secure without using Illinois’ Zero Emission Credit program. The agreement, confirmed by Meta, will keep the plant operational, boost grid capacity by 30 megawatts, and save more than 1,100 jobs in the area. It’s also projected to provide $13.5 million in tax revenue annually. 

Other Illinois state lawmakers praised the agreement’s economic stability to the region, and Illinois Republican Regan Deering described the agreement as “a forward-thinking investment.”

AI infrastructure push behind $65B investment surge

The agreement represents Meta’s wider strategy to construct a nuclear-powered AI ecosystem. The company has been actively sourcing more nuclear partners since last December when it announced its 1 to 4-gigawatt clean energy target. Meta said that talks with several potential suppliers are at the final stages.

The demand for AI is going up rapidly. The International Energy Agency projects that energy use in data centers will more than double by 2030, representing an amount of electricity greater than Japan currently consumes. That trend is mirrored by Meta’s spending $65 billion in AI infrastructure in 2025 alone.

The brainchild of the company’s latest AI vision is the complete automation of ad creation on Facebook and Instagram. Meta is set to begin generating customized ads — images, video, and text based on location and time by late 2026 as part of efforts to maximize ad targeting and campaign precision.

In April, Mark Zuckerberg told investors that AI tools have already started improving ad effectiveness, naming a 30 percent quarter-over-quarter rise in the use of AI tools for ad creation. The average ad price rose by 10%, and ad impressions increased by 5%, with Meta’s Q1 revenue coming in at $42.31 billion, a 16% bump.

Avoiding carbon and economic fallout from shutdown

Closing the Clinton plant would have had economic and environmental repercussions. A March study from the Brattle Group suggested it would generate 34 million metric tons of additional carbon emissions over 20 years, equal to 7.4 million gasoline vehicles on U.S. roads for one year. It also projected that the hit to Illinois’ GDP would be $765 million annually.

Through a private partnership, Meta is helping to keep the plant in operation to retain the generation of clean energy without overstressing state taxpayers or electricity ratepayers.

Constellation, which operates the Clinton plant, stressed the need to keep baseload power stable for such high-demand systems as AI servers. A consistent output and zero carbon profile mean nuclear is critical to future energy strategies for data-reliant companies, the company said.

Zuckerberg has envisioned a future where AI enables apps and contributes to content creation, marketing, and involving users. The potential for machine learning to be integrated into everyday experiences was signaled by AI companions and virtual therapists as possible solutions to social isolation recently highlighted by Meta.

Meta’s AI ad automation plans have been met with alarm within major advertising firms and their stocks have already taken a hit, with Omnicom Group now slipping on the fear of being disrupted. However, analysts see AI-generated media as a threat to traditional creative departments and production models.

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