TerraPower, the nuclear energy startup founded by Bill Gates, is preparing to announce its first data centre power project this year, according to Bloomberg. The move is part of a broader push by nuclear startups to court AI companies, which need constant, reliable electricity to run power-hungry data centres, and it matters because it could position nuclear as a more stable alternative to the batteries and gas turbines currently struggling to cope with volatile AI computing loads.

The project, expected to break ground in 2027, would be TerraPower's second power plant after one already under construction in Wyoming, though the customer has not been named; in January the firm said Meta had agreed to buy eight of its Natrium reactors. TerraPower's edge lies in its 345-megawatt molten salt-cooled reactor design, which stores surplus heat in a tank of molten sodium rather than adjusting the reactor's output. This lets it keep splitting atoms at a constant, efficient rate while still ramping electricity generation up or down quickly to match sudden swings in demand, whether from intermittent renewables like wind and solar or from surging AI workloads, and without the added cost of large battery banks.