Oklo and Switch partner on nuclear
The companies announced the “milestone agreement” in a December 18 news release, spelling out plans to partner on building new nuclear until 2044. According to the announcement, this is one of the largest corporate clean power agreements ever signed.
Although it’s a nonbinding agreement, the two companies say they will deploy Oklo’s Aurora sodium-cooled microreactors across the United States through a series of power purchase agreements. The Aurora system can deliver between 15 MW and 50 MW of power and be located on-site or near the facilities it would power, according to Oklo.
Quotable: “The relationship with Oklo underscores our commitment to deploying advanced nuclear power at a transformative scale for our data centers, further enhancing our offerings of one of the world’s most advanced data center infrastructures to current and future Switch clients,” said Rob Roy, founder and chief executive of Switch. “By utilizing Oklo’s Powerhouses, we aim to ensure that Switch remains the leader in data center sustainability while supporting our vision of energy abundance.”
Oklo’s cofounder and CEO, Jacob DeWitte, said, “Rob Roy and the Switch team share the vision we have for nuclear energy’s role in powering artificial intelligence and providing the world with energy abundance. Oklo expects to benefit enormously from Switch’s record of turning visions into reality. The lifespan of this master agreement will allow us to iterate and evolve with Switch from development to deployment to scaling. We believe that working with Switch will not only accelerate our early powerhouses but also accelerate our ability to scale by demonstrating customer demand for decades to come.”
A closer look: Oklo is backed by Sam Altman, best known for his role as CEO and cofounder of OpenAI. In collaboration with the Department of Energy, Oklo is working to build its first microreactor at Idaho National Laboratory. The company has been working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission since 2016 on its license application.
Oklo announced in November that it had signed letters of intent (LOIs) with “two major data center providers to deliver up to 750 MW of low carbon power for data centers” in undisclosed U.S. markets. If developed, Oklo’s customer pipeline would grow to about 2,100 MW, in addition to previously announced sites in Idaho, Ohio, Texas, and Wyoming.
Switch was founded in 2000 by Roy, and it currently operates 12 data centers in the United States, according to Data Center Map. According to the company, Switch provides the most modular, scalable, and sustainable data centers, and since 2016 all its data centers have been powered entirely by renewable energy.
