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People take photos in front of a giant Google logo at Google's Bay View campus in Mountain View, California on Aug 13, 2024 where the "Made by Google" media event was held today.

Google said Monday that it will purchase power from small modular reactor developer Kairos Power, as tech companies increasingly turn to nuclear power as a way to fulfill the growing energy demands from data centers.

The tech giant said it will purchase power from a fleet of SMRs made by Kairos Power. Google said purchasing from multiple SMRs sends an "important demand signal to the market," while making a long-term investment to accelerate commercialization.

"We believe that nuclear energy has a critical role to play in supporting our clean growth and helping to deliver on the progress of AI," Michael Terrell, senior director for energy and climate at Google, said on a call with reporters. "The grid needs these kinds of clean, reliable sources of energy that can support the build out of these technologies. ... We feel like nuclear can play an important role in helping to meet our demand, and helping meet our demand cleanly, in a way that's more around the clock."

The company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

There are only three SMRs that are operating in the world, and none in the U.S. The hope is that SMRs are a more cost-effective way to scale up nuclear power. In the past, large, commercial-scale nuclear reactor projects have run over budget and behind schedule, and many hope SMRs won't suffer that same fate. But it is uncharted territory to some extent.

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