A shift is taking place in the global Economy. For much of the past decade, discussions about artificial intelligence centred on algorithms, semiconductors, GPUs, and data.
In this piece, Abba Aliyu, Managing Director of Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA), explores the intersection of AI, electricity infrastructure, and Nigeria’s path to prosperity as part of a two-part series.
In 2026, another factor has moved decisively to the centre of the conversation: electricity. AI companies are discovering that billions of dollars’ worth of GPUs are of limited value if sufficient, reliable electricity cannot be delivered to them.
In view of this, some of the world’s largest technology companies are beginning to behave increasingly like energy companies, contracting nuclear generation, investing in new reactors, developing dedicated gas generation, acquiring or securing power infrastructure, investing in storage, and locating data centres according to the availability of electricity.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global data-centre electricity consumption is projected to reach roughly 945 TWh by 2030, approximately double today’s level, with consumption growing by about 15% annually between 2024 and 2030 — more than four times the growth rate of electricity consumption in the rest of the economy.
The IEA now describes the broader transformation as an “Age of Electricity,” forecasting that the world will add, on average, about 50% more electricity demand each year between 2026 and 2030 than it added annually during the previous decade.
Data centres, electrification, cooling, manufacturing, and electric mobility are among the principal drivers.
This represents both a warning and an extraordinary opportunity for Nigeria. Nigeria must stop seeing electricity access solely as a social-development intervention. Electricity is increasingly economic infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and national-competitiveness infrastructure.
What This Means for Nigeria, REA and RAMCO
1. Elon Musk did not buy a nuclear plant, but what xAI is doing may be more significant
The story circulating that Elon Musk purchased a nuclear power plant appears to be inaccurate. There is no credible evidence that Musk or xAI has purchased an operating nuclear power station.
However, the underlying story illustrates the electricity challenge facing AI remarkably well.
Musk confirmed in 2025 that xAI had acquired power-generation equipment overseas for deployment in the United States.
More recently, xAI has aggressively developed its own electricity supply around its enormous Colossus computing infrastructure rather than relying exclusively on traditional grid connections.
Reuters reported that xAI deployed significant numbers of gas turbines to support its Tennessee data-centre operations, although aspects of the deployment have generated environmental and permitting controversy.
More dramatically, in January 2026, xAI announced an investment of more than $20 billion for its Southaven, Mississippi, data-centre development. The project is expected to expand xAI’s computing infrastructure toward approximately 2 GW.
The lesson
The significant point is not whether Musk bought a nuclear plant.
It is that an AI company is effectively saying: “If the electricity system cannot provide power quickly enough, we will develop the power infrastructure ourselves.”
This represents a profound change in the relationship between technology and energy.
2. Meta has become one of the world’s largest corporate nuclear-energy buyers
In January 2026, Meta announced nuclear-energy agreements with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo aimed at supporting as much as 6.6 GW of new and existing clean generation by 2035.
Together with Meta’s broader agreements, the company later stated that it was supporting approximately 7.7 GW of nuclear energy across arrangements involving Vistra, TerraPower, Oklo, and Constellation.
This is remarkable.
Meta is fundamentally an internet and AI company, yet its future competitiveness has become sufficiently dependent on electricity that securing gigawatts of nuclear generation is now part of its infrastructure strategy.
The lesson
AI companies are becoming anchor customers for new electricity infrastructure.
Nigeria should consider whether large digital companies, telecommunications companies, industrial parks, universities, mining operations, and manufacturing clusters could similarly become anchor customers for distributed generation.
3. Microsoft is helping bring a retired nuclear reactor back into service
Microsoft entered into a 20-year electricity purchase agreement with Constellation that supported plans to restart the former Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania, now known as the Crane Clean Energy Center.
The plant is expected to restore approximately 835 MW of firm generation.
However, another development is equally important. Constellation says it can have the plant generating by 2027, while PJM indicated that transmission upgrades could potentially delay full grid interconnection until 2031.
This means a functioning power plant could theoretically exist while adequate network capacity to transport its electricity does not.
The lesson
Generation capacity is not the same thing as delivered electricity. The future metric should therefore not merely be, “How many megawatts did we construct?”
It should increasingly become, “How many reliable megawatts reached productive customers, for how many hours, and what economic activity did those megawatts create?”
4. Google is helping create a new generation of nuclear reactors
Google entered into a landmark arrangement with Kairos Power for advanced nuclear generation.
In April 2026, Kairos broke ground on its Hermes 2 demonstration facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Hermes 2 is designed to supply up to 50 MW to the Tennessee Valley Authority system and support the decarbonisation of Google’s data centres in Tennessee and Alabama.
The significance is greater than 50 MW. Google is helping create a future market for small modular and advanced nuclear reactors, just as technology companies helped create markets for renewable PPAs years earlier.
The lesson
The companies consuming electricity are beginning to influence which technologies get financed and built.
Nigeria can apply the same principle to distributed renewable energy. Large, guaranteed electricity buyers can provide the demand certainty needed to finance generation assets.
5. Amazon is also moving deeply into nuclear energy
Amazon has invested in X-energy, one of the leading developers of small modular reactor technology.
Its original agreement included support for manufacturing capacity capable of underpinning more than 5 GW of future nuclear projects using X-energy technology.
The financial market has subsequently validated some of this enthusiasm. In April 2026, Amazon-backed X-energy raised approximately $1.02 billion through its U.S. IPO.
AWS previously purchased a data-centre campus beside Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna nuclear station for approximately $650 million, providing another example of computing infrastructure migrating toward available electricity.
The lesson
The emerging formula is clear:
Power location → Data-centre location → Investment location → Jobs…
