Meta's plan for a new nuclear-powered AI datacenter was foiled by bees

Meta's plan to construct a nuclear-powered data center to support its exponentially growing AI ventures was foiled when a species of bees was discovered.

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According to a new report from The Financial Times, Meta was negotiating a deal with an owner of an already established nuclear power plant, but the deal fell apart due to environmental and regulatory problems. The deal was for the operator of the nuclear power plant to provide electricity to a presumably nearby soon-to-be-constructed data center. The publication didn't reveal the location of the proposed data center, or the nuclear power plant operator, but it did reveal a rare species of bees was discovered on the land the project was meant to be built.

The FT report stated Mark Zuckerberg discussed this point at a company meeting last week, where he said the discovery of the bee species complicated the project, and contributed to the ultimate cancellation. The unfortunate setback for Meta won't stop the company from finding a new building location, along with a clean energy supply. With the rise in AI data centers and the incredible amounts of power needed to fuel them, nuclear power has been thrown back into the conversation as a viable solution.

Further, nuclear energy has come back onto the table after being thought of as a dangerous source of energy. Amazon just announced it is investing big in nuclear energy as it believes it is the solution to the growing energy demands.

• Read more: Amazon's next-generation nuclear reactors use Billiard ball-sized fuel to solve the big problem