The news: Amazon, Google, and Meta are reaffirming their interest in alternative energy sources with a pledge to help triple nuclear energy capacity worldwide by 2050.

The pledge notes that nuclear energy can power tech innovation and also meet rising energy demands to create more reliable electricity grids.

Other signers of the pledge—which isn’t legally binding—include financial institutions like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.

Data is power hungry: The call for cleaner energy may be coming from inside the Big Tech house considering their data centers' extensive water and electricity demands.

• In 2023, Google’s and Microsoft’s energy consumption outpaced that of more than 100 individual countries.
• Meta’s greenhouse gas emissions increased 20% between 2020 and 2023, per its 2024 Environmental Sustainability Report.

Roadblocks: The three major signatories have been relatively quiet about nuclear energy in the past few months after announcing a flurry of projects in 2024. Some of those plans flopped quickly over environmental or regulatory concerns.

• Energy regulators rejected Amazon’s plan to funnel energy from a nuclear power plant into a scalable data center due to its potential effects on local electricity grids and consumer energy costs.
• Meta’s reported deal with a nuclear power plant operator was scrapped after a rare bee species was found near the planned data center’s site.

Google’s plan to buy energy from a series of small modular reactors (SMR), which are scheduled to be online by 2030, is still a go.

Putting off development of alternative and resilient energy sources now could lead Big Tech to struggle with support for their advanced AI models in the future.

Why does it matter? A heightened focus on cleaner energy could help tech companies hit their own sustainability goals, change how new data centers are planned, and open pathways for startups working on sustainability and clean energy infrastructure.

Pledges like this could also improve public perception of the brands: 54% of US adults think businesses should take a public stance on climate change, per Bentley University and Gallup.

Our take: This pledge could be more of a public relations move than a commitment to action considering that the signers aren’t legally bound to any action and haven’t specified how they’ll collaborate.