There’s been a lot of focus on oil this week, but alternative energy sources remain critical for electricity and AI demand. Meta Platforms (META) announced Friday that it inked deals with Vistra (VST). TerraPower and Oklo (OKLO) for up to 6.6 GW of nuclear energy by 2035. For context, that’s more than the entire state of New Hampshire uses in a year.

Focusing on the public companies, Vistra already has plants ready on the ground, but Oklo is still in the process of building out its reactors. Meta is committing to support Oklo’s development, along with boosting Vistra’s energy output. The company says this will create “thousands of new construction jobs and hundreds of long-term operations jobs.”

Meta needs the power to support its Prometheus supercluster computing system, which is being built in New Albany, Ohio. Oklo and Vistra’s projects are similarly based in Ohio, though one of Vistra’s operational plants is in nearby Pennsylvania. Location is important both for data centers and the energy systems powering them, and many are choosing the Heartland or remote areas like Idaho.

Meta shares were slightly higher in Friday’s trading, but Oklo and Vistra initially climbed 17% and 15% respectively before settling a little in the session. The investment is in line with the pledge it and Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL) made last year to help triple nuclear energy production by 2050.

Of note, Mark Zuckerberg has said Prometheus will come online sometime this year, well before all of this nuclear energy is up and running. Oklo still needs significant regulatory approval to build its plants. It has run into issues with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the past: its application for its advanced reactor was initially rejected in 2022 because of its “novel” approach to providing information.

However, recent executive orders, including one from President Trump in May 2025, have directed the NRC to accelerate reviews of advanced reactors.

The advantages of nuclear are many: the power source is consistent and does not need replenishing for many years. Safety and design improvements make the likelihood of a meltdown low. The downside is regulatory approval wait times and long build times.

We will likely continue to see companies creating or licensing their own power sources and grids. Energy dominance could become a major new source of corporate competition, as the overall U.S. power grid is old and needs significant overhaul.

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