In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in New Mexico. Four years later in 1979, the US suffered its worst nuclear power disaster at the Pennsylvania plant known as Three Mile Island. More than 40 years later, these unrelated events have, perhaps surprisingly, collided.
The current operator of Three Mile Island (TMI), Constellation Energy, has announced a deal with Microsoft to restart a reactor adjacent to, but distinct from, the accident site. It is set to deliver 835MW of power capacity for a data centre run by the software titan. Constellation and Microsoft are keen to describe the deal as a win for carbon-free “clean energy”. At the very least, Constellation Energy shareholders are seeing green.
Constellation’s market cap has jumped by nearly $15bn to $80bn, in response to the deal. Since a spin-off from former parent Exelon in early 2022, its shares are up more than 200 per cent. Independent US power plant operators are riding high on an unusual confluence of factors where old-school technology — nuclear, natural gas, coal — is back in favour and deep-pocketed customers are able to pay top dollar for predictable output.