Oracle's interest in SMRs as a power source comes as the cloud provider looks to expand its datacenter footprint.
"Oracle has 162 cloud datacenters, live and under construction throughout the world. The largest of these datacenters is 800 megawatts, and it will contain acres of Nvidia GPU clusters able to train the world's largest AI models," Ellison told analysts on the call. "Soon Oracle will begin construction of datacenters that are more than a gigawatt."
Execs did not say when the gigawatt-class datacenters and the SMRs powering them will come online.
no SMR is currently operating and pilot projects have not gone well.
Despite their potential benefits, SMRs face considerable barriers to widespread deployment. Back in May, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis concluded that SMRs were "too expensive, too slow to build, and too risky to play a significant role in transitioning away from fossil fuels."
However that hasn't stopped major hyperscalers from embracing nuclear reactors – whether SMRs or conventional designs. Earlier this year Amazon acquired Talen Energy's Cumulus datacenter in a $650 million deal. Co-located alongside the 2.5 gigawatt Susquehanna nuclear power plant, the acquisition guarantees the cloud giant access to as much as 960 megawatts of capacity.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is also sufficiently interested in SMRs that it hired someone to oversee their deployment.
"Oracle has 162 cloud datacenters, live and under construction throughout the world. The largest of these datacenters is 800 megawatts, and it will contain acres of Nvidia GPU clusters able to train the world's largest AI models," Ellison told analysts on the call. "Soon Oracle will begin construction of datacenters that are more than a gigawatt."
Execs did not say when the gigawatt-class datacenters and the SMRs powering them will come online.
Oracle to power 1GW datacenter with trio of nuclear reactors
Isn't saying how much they'll cost or when they'll fire up
www.theregister.com
no SMR is currently operating and pilot projects have not gone well.
Despite their potential benefits, SMRs face considerable barriers to widespread deployment. Back in May, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis concluded that SMRs were "too expensive, too slow to build, and too risky to play a significant role in transitioning away from fossil fuels."
However that hasn't stopped major hyperscalers from embracing nuclear reactors – whether SMRs or conventional designs. Earlier this year Amazon acquired Talen Energy's Cumulus datacenter in a $650 million deal. Co-located alongside the 2.5 gigawatt Susquehanna nuclear power plant, the acquisition guarantees the cloud giant access to as much as 960 megawatts of capacity.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is also sufficiently interested in SMRs that it hired someone to oversee their deployment.