A growing concern in the tech world is the environmental impact of large AI data centers filled with Nvidia GPUs. Training advanced AI models requires immense amounts of power and water. For instance, ChatGPT-3 consumed an estimated 1.3 gigawatt-hours of energy—the equivalent of what 120 average households would use in a year.

In response to this rising demand, Microsoft has struck a surprising deal to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. This will help power its Azure data centers, the same ones OpenAI uses to train its AI models, with cleaner energy sources.

The move highlights the need to balance the power-hungry requirements of training next-gen AI models (ChatGPT-4 used roughly 10x the power of its predecessor) while staying true to clean energy commitments.

Re-opened Three Mile Island will power AI data centers under new deal

Microsoft would claim all of the nuclear plant’s power generation for at least 20 years.