Jeff Bezos Backs Nuclear Power With $3.5M Grant From Earth Fund
Jeff Bezos has found his next climate-focused philanthropy target: nuclear power. The billionaire’s Bezos Earth Fund, which aims to distribute $10 billion to fight climate change by the end of the decade, is granting $3.5 million to a new initiative to streamline nuclear reactor construction across the country.
The funds will support the Nuclear Scaling Initiative (NSI), a collaborative effort between the Clean Air Task Force, EFI Foundation and the Nuclear Threat Initiative that aims to scale up to 50 gigawatts of nuclear energy globally by 2030. Bolstered by Bezos’ donation, the NSI will pursue an orderbook—a model in which multiple buyers commit to building the same reactor design—rather than pursuing one-off projects.
“The United States has a rare opportunity to turn rising energy demand into an advantage,” said Tom Taylor, president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, in a statement that praised nuclear power’s ability to deliver “energy abundance” while simultaneously meeting climate goals. Bezos, who launched the fund in 2020, serves as its executive chair, while his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, serves as its vice chair. The philanthropic initiative has so far awarded $2.3 billion in more than 300 grants to efforts ranging from nature restoration and food system transformation to A.I.-powered climate solutions.
The fund’s latest grant comes as electricity demand is set to surge, fueled in part by the A.I. boom and a wave of data center construction. Electricity demand in the U.S. will grow by more than 50 percent by 2050, according to a recent study commissioned by the National Electric Manufacturers Association, which also projected a 300 percent increase in data center energy consumption over the next ten years.
Big Tech companies and startups in search of sustainable, large-scale energy supplies have increasingly turned to nuclear power to fuel their growing A.I. ambitions. That includes Amazon, the e-commerce giant co-founded by Bezos in the 1990s. The tech company has struck a series of nuclear deals, ranging from investments in small modular reactors to an agreement with Talen Energy to acquire energy from its Pennsylvania nuclear station.
Deploying nuclear energy, however, isn’t without challenges. Pursuing standardized and repeatable designs through an orderbook strategy can simplify the process by cutting costs and accelerating timelines, according to the NSI, which noted that the model has already proven successful in industries like aviation and shipping. Assembling orderbooks is among the group’s core priorities, and the collaboration has previously received philanthropic backing from other billionaires, including Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and his wife Isabelle Boemeke.
“The orderbook model is key for managing risk and eventually lowering costs,” said Ernest Moniz, the former Energy Secretary and a co-chair of the NSI’s steering committee, in a statement. “This philanthropic commitment from the Bezos Earth Fund will be catalytic for converting ambition into execution.”
Bezos’ interest in nuclear power extends beyond building new reactors in the U.S. He has also backed efforts to commercialize nuclear fusion, investing in startups such as General Fusion and Commonwealth Fusion Systems.