DigiTimes重述亚马逊/AEP/X-energy印第安纳960MW SMR合作，系10月19日旧闻无新增事实

Amazon plans to invest in a proposed 960MW nuclear power plant in Indiana and become its first power purchaser, securing long-term electricity for its AI data centers as it expands its nuclear energy strategy.

According to reports from TechCrunch and The Register , American Electric Power (AEP) would operate the project, while nuclear startup X-energy would supply the reactors. The plant would be built at a retired coal-fired power station site in Sullivan County, south of Terre Haute, Indiana, and would comprise 12 Xe-100 small modular reactors (SMRs).
X-energy said construction could be completed as early as the mid-2030s, although the actual timeline will depend on subsequent development and licensing approvals.
Amazon has not disclosed a specific investment amount, saying only that it is investing billions of dollars in nuclear energy projects. Electricity generated by the new plant will be fed into the public grid while also supplying Amazon's data centers.
This marks Amazon's second commercial partnership with X-energy, with the project roughly three times the size of the initial 320MW phase announced for their Washington project about two years ago. Amazon led approximately US$500 million in financing for X-energy in 2024, expanded to US$700 million in 2025, and the companies set a goal of deploying 5GW of new nuclear capacity in the US by 2039, underscoring Amazon's move to incorporate nuclear power into its long-term AI energy strategy.
As AI data centers rapidly increase their electricity consumption, technology companies are seeking additional sources of long-term electricity supply. Compared with large nuclear plants, SMRs emphasize standardized designs and modular production, with the goal of reducing construction costs and shortening project timelines through mass manufacturing, potentially making them a stable future power source for data centers.
However, X-energy's technology still faces commercialization challenges. Its Xe-100 reactor uses helium cooling and tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles, but the company has not yet completed a commercial reactor that is ready for operation.
The company's Seadrift nuclear project for Dow in Texas has entered the later stages of review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for its construction permit, according to X-energy, but construction has yet to begin. The project is also facing litigation related to water resources and solid-waste regulations.
Amazon is acting as a development funder and prospective power purchaser in the Indiana project, but the project still requires regulatory approval. This means the project must still overcome licensing, construction, and cost challenges, even with financial backing and demand commitments from a major technology company.
For Amazon, the value of its nuclear strategy extends beyond increasing power supplies. It also aims to reduce the future dependence of AI data centers on existing power generation and limit supply uncertainty. However, if SMR construction schedules continue to slip, the technology will struggle to ease data center power bottlenecks in the short term.