Amazon will fund the development of a 960 MW nuclear plant in Indiana and will be the first customer to buy its power. The agreement, announced on October 19, also involves utility American Electric Power (AEP) and reactor developer X-energy.
The project calls for 12 Xe-100 small modular reactors of 80 MW each, grouped into three blocks of four units. The site is the former Breed coal plant in Sullivan County, just south of Terre Haute, on land owned by AEP. If the project reaches a final investment decision, AEP will own and operate the plant. The reactors will enter service in phases and connect to the regional power grid. The electricity will serve the public grid and Amazon’s data centers.
For now, this is a feasibility study. X-energy and AEP are signing a joint development agreement, while Amazon will provide capital in stages tied to the achievement of milestones. Amazon intends to purchase the power under a long-term contract. The companies have not disclosed the project’s cost, Amazon’s financial commitment or the price of the electricity. AEP CEO Bill Fehrman said the agreements with Amazon and X-energy provide the financial and capital-protection safeguards the utility considers necessary to move forward.
It is the second commercial project in the Amazon-X-energy collaboration, after Energy Northwest’s Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Washington state. It is three times the size of the first, which was announced two years ago. In 2024, Amazon led X-energy’s $700 million Series C-1 funding round. The two companies are aiming for more than 5 GW of new nuclear capacity on the US grid by 2039. X-energy, listed on Nasdaq since April 2026, describes the Indiana project as the third commercial Xe-100 project in the United States and the fourth worldwide, within a pipeline of about 11.5 GW.
The Xe-100 is a high-temperature, helium-cooled reactor fueled with TRISO fuel. It can use air-cooled condensers, water-based systems or hybrid solutions, depending on available water resources. The first US plant in the series is at Seadrift, Texas, with four units to supply electricity and high-temperature steam to a Dow facility. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is in the final stages of reviewing the construction permit application.
The choice of a former coal plant follows a pattern already seen in the United States: reusing sites with existing grid connections. If the project clears the feasibility phase, Indiana could become one of the first states with a fleet of SMRs approaching one gigawatt, serving both industrial demand and the public grid.
