Google CEO Sundar Pichai is exploring the use of electricity from nuclear plants to power the company’s data centers amid rising energy demands from artificial intelligence (AI).

In an interview with Nikkei, Pichai mentioned plans to increase investments in solar and thermal energy while evaluating technologies like small modular nuclear reactors.

AI applications require significant energy; for example, a single ChatGPT query consumes nearly ten times the electricity of a standard Google search.

As part of its commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030, Google reported a 13% increase in greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, largely attributed to the energy demands of AI, The Hill has reported.

Pichai acknowledged the challenges posed by the growing intensity of AI computing on emission reduction efforts.

Written by B.C. Begley