Google and Constellation Energy have signed a 20-year agreement to add 890 megawatts of nuclear capacity to the U.S. grid — without building a single new reactor. The deal is worth more than $4.3 billion and covers six nuclear plants across Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, spanning 11 units. It is the largest uprate agreement ever signed between a nuclear operator and a technology company.
The mechanism at the heart of the deal is the nuclear uprate: boosting the output of an existing reactor by replacing turbines, steam generators, and digital control systems, with no need for new site permits or years of greenfield construction. The additional 890 MW is roughly equivalent to the output of one large new reactor — with the key difference that an uprate sidesteps site selection and grid connection queues entirely. The first capacity increase is expected by 2028, with the full program completed by 2033.
The agreement has a dual structure. In addition to the uprate deal, the two companies have signed a separate 15-year supply contract covering another 2,700 MW of capacity already operating on the PJM grid. PJM Interconnection is facing a shortfall of roughly 6.8 GW of new capacity and is struggling to keep pace with surging demand from data centers. This deal addresses that pressure head-on. Constellation described the agreement with Google as a “direct response” to PJM’s Bring Your Own Power proposal.
A technology component sits at the core of the agreement as well. The two companies have reached a five-year deal for Constellation to use Google’s cloud and artificial intelligence services, including Gemini Enterprise agentic workflows. The “AI for Energy” approach is designed to shorten engineering timelines and regulatory processes for uprates, improve operational performance, and protect critical infrastructure. This is not a side arrangement — it is an integral part of the project’s industrial logic. Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez described the Google partnership as “a model for how technology companies and the energy sector can work together.”
The broader backdrop is an intensifying race for clean power among major tech players. The announcement follows a similar 690 MW deal that Constellation struck with Amazon the previous week, centered on a 190 MW expansion at the Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland. Constellation’s announcement also came just one day after the U.S. Department of Energy unveiled a $4.2 billion loan to extend the life of three Vistra nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio, with Meta as the energy offtaker. Two deals with two hyperscalers in a single week. The signal is unmistakable.
If this pace holds, uprates could emerge as the primary tool for adding nuclear gigawatts in the near term — at least in the United States. Google has set a target of 5 GW of domestic nuclear expansion by 2030 through uprates and plant restarts. The path there runs through deals like this one: fast to structure, anchored to existing infrastructure, and capable of moving billions of dollars without waiting for the first concrete to be poured on a new reactor.
