SAN JOSE (California): Google on Monday announced plans to purchase nuclear power to operate data centres in the age of power-hungry artificial intelligence (AI), following in the footsteps of Microsoft, reported German news ahency (dpa).

The tech giant said it is planning to bring California-based Kairos Power's first small modular reactors (SMR) online "quickly and safely by 2030, followed by additional reactor deployments through 2035."

"Overall, this deal will enable up to 500 MW of new 24/7 carbon-free power to US electricity grids and help more communities benefit from clean and affordable nuclear power," Google manager Michael Terrell said in a blog post.

Terrell told the Financial Times that the plan is to use six or seven power plants. It is still unclear whether the electricity from the reactors would be fed into the grid or whether they would be connected directly to the data centres.

Financial details of the deal also remain unclear – as well as whether Google wants to co-finance the construction of the power plants or just purchase electricity after completion.

A special feature of Kairos' small reactors is that they are cooled not with water but with molten fluoride salts. The company says that the design is safer than conventional reactors because the coolant does not boil.

Last year, Kairos received authorisation to build its first test reactor in the US state of Tennessee.

Big tech companies committed themselves to climate-neutral operations and in recent years have increasingly relied on renewable energies. But then came the boom in AI, which requires high electricity consumption.

 
 -dpa