TerraPower Lines Up Second US Nuclear Plant

Bill Gates-backed group plans a Natrium reactor for a data centre, with construction expected to begin in 2027.

2 Sep 2026

TerraPower, the nuclear power company backed by Bill Gates, plans to announce its second US plant this year as rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence drives data centre operators to seek new sources of power. Construction is expected to begin in 2027.

Chris Levesque, TerraPower’s chief executive, said in an interview on Tuesday that the Natrium reactor would supply a data centre, although he declined to identify the customer. It would follow the company’s first Natrium plant, now under construction in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

Built around a nuclear reactor and molten-salt energy storage system, Natrium can store heat and release energy when required. TerraPower sees that flexibility as useful for large data centres, which need substantial and dependable electricity supplies as computing demand changes.

In January 2026, TerraPower signed an agreement with Meta to supply power from as many as eight Natrium reactor plants. The deal gave the company a large potential customer as technology groups increasingly consider nuclear generation for the growing electricity needs of AI infrastructure.

Data centres have become an important source of expected growth in US electricity consumption as technology companies expand computing capacity to train and operate AI models. Interest in nuclear generation has risen alongside that demand because reactors can provide continuous electricity without direct carbon emissions during generation.

For TerraPower, the next test will be moving its Natrium technology through development and construction at commercial scale. The customer and location of its second US project have yet to be disclosed, while further expansion will depend on whether planned reactors can enter operation on schedule.