Meta’s decision to secure long-term nuclear power capacity underscores a fundamental constraint in the AI economy: compute scales faster than renewable energy reliability. While solar and wind remain essential components of the energy transition, they cannot independently support the continuous, high-density power demands of large AI data centers.

Nuclear power reenters the picture not as a climate gesture, but as infrastructure necessity. AI workloads require uninterrupted baseload power, predictable pricing, and long-term supply commitments. Hyperscalers are increasingly unwilling to rely on utility markets to solve those constraints.

This shifts the development calculus for data-center-adjacent real estate. Power availability, transmission access, and interconnection timelines are becoming more important than land cost or fiber proximity. Markets unable to deliver firm power will fall behind regardless of demand.

The result is a convergence of energy strategy and real estate development. Data centers are no longer passive energy consumers — they are active participants in generation planning.