Google announced on Tuesday that it has signed a deal with nuclear energy startup Kairos Power to purchase 500 megawatts of “new 24/7 carbon-free power” from seven of the company’s small modular reactors (SMRs). The companies are reportedly looking at an initial delivery from the first SMR in 2030 and a full rollout by 2035.
“The grid needs new electricity sources to support AI technologies that are powering major scientific advances, improving services for businesses and customers, and driving national competitiveness and economic growth,” Michael Terrell, Google’s senior director of Energy and Climate, wrote in a Google Blog on Tuesday. “This agreement helps accelerate a new technology to meet energy needs cleanly and reliably, and unlock the full potential of AI for everyone.”
Terrell argues that the adoption of nuclear power will complement the company’s existing solar power and wind power investments and help it achieve its net-zero energy goals. He also touts nuclear energy as a source of high-paying, long-term jobs, citing a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimate that building out to 200 gigawatts of capacity by 2050 will require an additional 375,000 workers.
Google is far from the only major tech company eyeing nuclear energy as the answer to its AI power problems. Amazon Web Services purchased a 960-megawatt data center campus from Houston-based Talen Energy in March for a sum of $650 million. In September, Microsoft announced that it is working to restart Unit 1 at New York’s Three Mile Island in an effort to power its AI data centers.
That same month, Oracle announced that it is designing a 1-gigawatt data center that will be powered by a trio of small nuclear reactors. “The location and the power place we’ve located, they’ve already got building permits for three nuclear reactors,” Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said during a quarterly investors call. “These are the small modular nuclear reactors to power the data center. This is how crazy it’s getting. This is what’s going on.”
Kairos is also facing increasing competition from other small modular reactor manufacturers. Westinghouse, for example, is currently testing a micro reactor that can run 24/7 for five years without needing to be refueled. Given the astronomical energy (and cooling) requirements of today’s frontier AI models, these advancements can’t come soon enough.
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.