Meta's deal to help revive an Illinois nuclear power plant was one way of signaling that the parent company of Facebook and Instagram is preparing for a future built with artificial intelligence.
Meta's 20-year deal with Constellation Energy follows similar maneuvers from Amazon, Google and Microsoft, but it will take years before nuclear energy can meet the tech industry's insatiable demand for new sources of electricity.
AI uses vast amounts of energy, much of which comes from burning fossil fuels, which causes climate change. The unexpected popularity of generative AI products over the past few years has disrupted many tech companies' carefully laid plans to supply their technology with energy sources that don't contribute to climate change.
Even as Meta anticipates more nuclear in the future, its more immediate plans rely on natural gas. Entergy, one of the nation’s largest utility providers, has been fast-tracking plans to build gas-fired power plants in Louisiana to prepare for a massive Meta data center complex.
France has touted its ample nuclear power — which produces about 75% of the nation's electricity, the highest level in the world — as a key element in its pitch to be an AI leader. Hosting an AI summit in Paris earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron cited President Donald Trump’s “drill baby drill” slogan and offered another: “Here there’s no need to drill, it’s just plug baby plug.”
In the U.S., however, most of the electricity consumed by data centers relies on fossil fuels — burning natural gas and sometimes coal — according to an April report from the International Energy Agency. As AI demand rises, the main source of new supply over the coming years is expected to be from gas-fired plants, a cheap and reliable source of power but one that produces planet-warming emissions.
Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind account for about 24% of data center power in the U.S., while nuclear comprises about 15%, according to the IEA. It will take years before enough climate-friendlier power sources, including nuclear, could start slowing the expansion of fossil fuel power generation.
A report released by the U.S. Department of Energy late last year estimated that the electricity needed for data centers in the U.S. tripled over the past decade and is projected to double or triple again by 2028 when it could consume up to 12% of the nation’s electricity.
It takes a lot of computing power to make an AI chatbot and the systems they're built on, such as Meta's Llama. It starts with a process called training or pretraining — the “P” in ChatGPT — that involves AI systems “learning” from the patterns of huge troves of data. To do that, they need specialized computer chips — usually graphics processors, or GPUs — that can run many calculations at a time on a network of devices in communication with each other.
Once trained, a generative AI tool still needs electricity to do the work, such as when you ask a chatbot to compose a document or generate an image. That process is called inferencing. A trained AI model must take in new information and make inferences from what it already knows to produce a response.
All of that computing takes a lot of electricity and generates a lot of heat. To keep it cool enough to work properly, data centers need air conditioning. That can require even more electricity, so most data center operators look for other cooling techniques that usually involve pumping in water.
FILE - This June 2, 2016 file photo shows the Clinton Clean Energy Center in Clinton, Ill. (John Dixon/The News-Gazette via AP, File)
FILE - This combo image shows Meta's logo, top, at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Nov. 9, 2022 and The Constellation Energy building, Dec. 19, 2005 in a Baltimore. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, Gail Burton, File)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran attacked commercial ships on Wednesday across the Persian Gulf and targeted Dubai International Airport, escalating a campaign of squeezing the oil-rich region as global energy concerns mounted and American and Israeli airstrikes pounded the Islamic Republic.
Two Iranian drones hit near Dubai International Airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and the world’s busiest for international travel. Four people were wounded but flights continued, the Dubai Media Office said.
Iran's joint military command announced it would start targeting banks and financial institutions in the Middle East. That would put at risk particularly Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which is home to many international financial institutions, as well as Saudi Arabia and the island kingdom of Bahrain.
Earlier, a projectile hit a Thai cargo ship off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze. Authorities are searching for three missing crew members from the Mayuree Naree after 20 were rescued by the Omani navy, according to Thailand’s Marine Department.
Kuwait said its defenses downed eight Iranian drones and Saudi Arabia said it intercepted five heading toward the kingdom’s Shaybah oil field.
Iran has effectively stopped cargo traffic in the narrow strait through which about a fifth of all oil is shipped. It has also targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations, aiming at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end their strikes.
The U.N. Security Council was to vote later Wednesday on a resolution sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council demanding Iran stop attacking its Arab neighbors.
Witnesses reported continuous airstrikes hitting Tehran after Israel said it had renewed its attacks. Explosions were also heard in Beirut and in southern Lebanon after Israel said it was hitting targets connected to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
The attacks set a building ablaze in central Beirut's densely populated Aicha Bakkar area, engulfing the top two floors. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Other Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon killed 14 people, and a Red Cross worker also died Wednesday of wounds sustained Monday, when his team was hit by an Israeli strike while they were rescuing people from an earlier attack.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said Wednesday that 570 people have been killed in the country since that latest fighting began. Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel after the United States and Israel began the wider war with their surprise bombardment of Iran.
Israel warned of three Iranian attacks early Wednesday, with sirens heard in Tel Aviv and elsewhere but no immediate reports of casualties.
Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed six ballistic missiles launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, a major U.S.- and Saudi-operated facility, and intercepted two drones over the eastern city of Hafar al-Batin.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military, reported an attack on a container ship off the United Arab Emirates, saying the “extent of the damage is currently unknown but under investigation by the crew.” Another ship was hit by a projectile in the Persian Gulf, it said. The crew was reported safe.
The ship attacks follow intense American airstrikes targeting Iranian navy assets and the port city of Bandar Abbas on Tuesday.
Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the UAE were working to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones.
The Iranian threat against financial institutions did not identify any specifically. It came after a Tehran location of Bank Sepah, the state-owned financial institution sanctioned by the U.S. over funding its armed forces, came under attack early Wednesday, killing staffers there, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
At the United Nations, the Security Council was to vote Wednesday afternoon on the Gulf Cooperation Council resolution, according to three diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.
The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, condemns Iran’s attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan. The measure calls for an immediate end to all strikes and threats against neighboring states, including through proxies.
It would be the first Security Council resolution considered since the start of the war on Feb. 28.
Oil prices remained well below Monday's peaks but the price of Brent crude, the international standard, was still up some 20% Wednesday from when the war began, and consumers around the world are already feeling the pain at the pump.
The spike in oil prices has been rocking financial markets worldwide because of worries that a prolonged war could hinder exports from a critical region.
The U.S. military said Tuesday it had destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz, though U.S. President Donald Trump said in social media posts that there were no reports yet of Iran mining the passage.
If the strait is mined, it could take at least weeks to clean it up once the conflict is over.
Some tankers, believed linked to Iran, are continuing to get through the strait making so-called “dark” transits -- meaning they aren’t turning on their Automatic Identification System trackers, which show where vessels are. Vessels carrying sanctioned Iranian crude often turn off their AIS trackers.
The security firm Neptune P2P Group said Wednesday there had been seven ships pass through the strait since March 8. Of them, five were linked to Iranian-associated shipping, it said. In ordinary times the strait typically sees 100 ships or more transit daily from the Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Oman.
Meanwhile, the commodity-tracking firm Kpler said Iran has restarted crude exports through its Jask oil terminal on the Gulf of Oman. A tanker loaded roughly 2 million barrels at Jask on March 7, it said.
Concerns are growing over the health of Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei after comments about him “being injured.”
The 56-year-old Khamenei — the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — has not been seen since becoming supreme leader on Monday. His father and wife both were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the conflict.
In addition to the 570 killed in Lebanon, Iran has said that more than 1,300 people have been killed there and Israel has reported 12 people dead.
The U.S. has lost seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries.
Many foreign nationals have been getting out of the Persian Gulf region since the war began, including over 45,000 U.K. citizens, the British Foreign Office said. Some 40,000 people returned to the United States, according to the State Department.
Magdy reported from Cairo, and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AIJoud in Beirut, Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this story.
A man holds a picture of late Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh beside his coffin as mourners attend the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A mourner holds a poster depicting Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, the successor to his late father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, as supreme leader, during the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from a building following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Mourners attend the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and some civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohsen Ganji, File)
Rescue workers gather at the site where Israeli airstrikes hit apartments in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People take shelter in an underground metro station as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strike, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A man passes in front of a destroyed building that housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a non-bank financial institution run by Hezbollah, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty traditional main bazaar in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Motorbikes drive past a billboard depicting Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, handing the country’s flag to his son and successor Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, as the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stands at left, in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
