Meta has signed a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy to meet the requirements for AI compute while also expanding the output of their nuclear plant in Illinois. The agreement is the latest in a host of announcements where Big Tech companies have partnered with the nuclear sector as they build more AI technology. Meta will help revive Constellation’s Clinton Clean Energy Center that was due to be shut in 2017 due to losses but saved by legislation around a zero-emission credit program that was passed in the state. The program was expected to help support the plant until 2027. The new deal will expand the plant’s output by 30 megawatts, save 1,100 local jobs while bringing in $13.5 million in annual tax revenue. The plant powers around 800,000 U.S. homes currently. Constellation also owns the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant that was restarted after a deal with Microsoft. Amazon is also investing in small nuclear reactors as is Google which will be investing in three advanced nuclear energy projects.
Google taps Supreme Court lawyer for antitrust appeal
Google has hired a top U.S. solicitor general from during the Obama administration, Donald Verrilli Jr. to appeal a ruling against the search giant in the ongoing antitrust search lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta had ruled earlier that Google has an unlawful monopoly in online search and related advertising. The ruling proposed that either Chrome be divested or share data that would allow rivals to reverse engineer their search engine. Google has defended itself by saying that the DOJ couldn’t prove that it had harmed competition. The case hinged upon Google’s exclusive agreement Apple that made Chrome the default search browser in their devices. The deal is now not as exclusive given that manufacturers like Apple as well as Samsung also install rival apps. Verrilli is noted for his work while defending Obama’s healthcare law during his term.
AI coding startups touch high valuations
Since the arrival of ChatGPT, software development platforms have become the only business to show returns on investment with code-generation startups like Cursor and Windsurf touching high valuations. While Cursor recently raised $900 million from investors including Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Accel, at a $10 billion valuation in May, OpenAI is in talks to acquire Windsurf for $3 billion. Major tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI are all looking to gain ground as well with their own code-gen tools. The spurt in AI code gen tools could indicate that entry-level jobs in software engineering are at a risk. Data from a VC firm, Signalfire has shown that tech hiring for new hires with less than a year of experience has fallen by 24% in 2024 due to AI. Big Tech leaders like Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and Google CEO Sundar Pichai have both said that a lot of the code within the company was being generated by AI now.