NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Major data center developer

and operator Equinix ( EQIX ) has entered into several advanced

nuclear electricity deals, including power purchase agreements

for fission energy and pre-ordering microreactors for its

operations, the company said on Thursday.

Big Tech's race to expand technologies like generative

artificial intelligence, which requires warehouse-like data

centers that can require city-sized amounts of electricity at a

single site, is driving up global energy consumption and raising

fears about depleted power supplies.

The voracious energy needs of data centers has led to a

rising number of preliminary power deals to fuel data centers

with advanced nuclear energy.

Small modular reactors and other next-generation energy is

not yet commercially available in the U.S., the world's data

center hub.

The Equinix ( EQIX ) announcement follows news that the U.S.

Department of Energy earlier had selected an initial 11 projects

for a pilot program seeking to develop high-tech test nuclear

reactors with the aim of getting three of the projects operating

in less than a year.

Equinix's ( EQIX ) deals with advanced nuclear providers would supply

more than 1 gigawatt of electricity to the company's data

centers.

Among the agreements, Equinix ( EQIX ) plans to procure 500 megawatts

of energy from California-based Oklo's ( OKLO ) next-generation nuclear

fission powerhouses. It also entered into a preorder agreement

for 20 transportable microreactors from Radiant Nuclear, which

is also based in California.

In Europe, Equinix's ( EQIX ) agreements to eventually purchase power

from next-generation nuclear developers, ULC-Energy and

Stellaria.

Equinix ( EQIX ) also entered into advanced fuel cell agreements with

Bloom Energy, based in Silicon Valley.

The agreements are part of Equinix's ( EQIX ) long-term planning for

electricity to use for its data centers, as opposed to a

quick-fix solution, Raouf Abdel, Equinix's ( EQIX ) executive vice

president of global operations, told Reuters.