Amazon-Talen deal rejection is 'short-term setback' for Big Tech
US regulators rejected a deal that would have allowed Amazon's (AMZN) cloud business, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to buy power from Talen Energy (TLN) for its data centers. The decision comes as Big Tech companies have turned to nuclear energy to power their artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, stoking some worries about the recent rally in nuclear energy stocks. ClearView Energy Partners managing director Timothy Fox joins Asking for a Trend Host Josh Lipton to discuss what the news means for Big Tech's nuclear push. "Ultimately, we think the Federal Energy Regulatory [Commission] decision is a short-term setback for generators that wish to co-locate their load or co-locate their power with a data center and also a setback for the data center developers. But the order may not represent a long-term risk. It's more that FERC may have punted or didn't want to set a precedent about co-location." Fox outlines, "Regulators are concerned about three things. They're concerned about reliability, taking in existing large nuclear power plants offline. Does that create reliability risks? They're also concerned about ratepayers. Do existing ratepayers have to pay some unfair portion of the cost of upgrading the grid to accommodate a new data center? And then also the third concern is policy. Does the influx of new data centers create a concern about being able to meet state or local decarbonization policies?" To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Asking for a Trend here. This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.
