What do Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Sam Altman share? Besides their fame as tech innovators – Bezos with Amazon, Gates with Microsoft and Altman with OpenAI – they’re united in betting on nuclear energy. And they're not alone.
The nuclear sector is experiencing a renaissance, bolstered by climate goals and energy demands, with these billionaires leading the charge.
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With over $100 billion net worth, Gates founded TerraPower, a company developing next-gen nuclear reactors. TerraPower's advanced reactor, Natrium, received a $2 billion boost from the U.S. Department of Energy, along with $1 billion in private funding.
Gates' investment is revolutionary. It uses molten salt for energy storage, which could help integrate renewable sources into the grid more effectively.
Bezos, worth an estimated $228 billion, has invested in General Fusion, a Canadian company focused on commercializing fusion energy. Fusion, often called the “holy grail” of clean energy, replicates the sun’s energy processes. While viable fusion power remains decades away, General Fusion's progress has attracted major backers, including Bezos.
Sam Altman, worth around $1 billion, focuses on advanced fission through Oklo, a startup that aims to commercialize micro-reactors that can run on nuclear waste.
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At a Bloomberg event during the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Altman said, "There's no way to get there without a breakthrough. We need [nuclear] fusion or we need like radically cheaper solar plus storage or something at massive scale."
These billionaires echo that the world needs more power – fast. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global electricity demand is projected to increase by more than 50% by 2050. Data centers, AI applications and electric vehicles are major drivers of this surge. Goldman Sachs Research predicts data center power demand will increase by 160% by 2030. Data centers account for 1-2% of global power consumption.
Nuclear power is uniquely positioned to meet this. According to the Department of Energy, nuclear plants provide a steady and reliable energy supply. This is unlike wind and solar power, which are intermittent and dependent on weather.
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The capacity factor of nuclear power – the percentage of time it operates at maximum capacity – exceeds 90%, far outpacing wind (35%) and solar (25%).
Critics argue about costs and waste, but nuclear's footprint is minuscule compared to fossil fuels. The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) reports nuclear energy helps avoid over 400 million metric tons of CO2 emissions yearly in the U.S., equivalent to taking 100 million cars off the road.
Nuclear energy isn't just for billionaires; governments are stepping up too. The Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S. provides $6 billion toward nuclear energy, ensuring the industry’s growth aligns with climate goals.
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