A rare species of bee prevented Mark Zuckerberg from building a nuclear data center

In the competition to create infrastructure for artificial intelligence, Mark Zuckerberg encountered an unexpected obstacle — a rare species of bees residing on the site designated for Meta's nuclear-powered data center construction.

According to the Financial Times, Mark Zuckerberg informed his employees that the initially selected land for the data center is no longer suitable for the company due to the presence of the rare bee species.

Meta has not yet provided any official comments regarding the change of plans; however, it is worth noting that the company has also faced environmental and regulatory hurdles during the construction deal process. It seems that the bees have ultimately dashed Zuckerberg's ambitions.

The publication unfortunately did not provide details about the construction site or disclose the name of the power plant operator with whom a deal was being planned. However, it does mention that Zuckerberg viewed his plans as an opportunity to make Meta the first "nuclear AI" company in the Big Tech sector.

In the latest financial report, the head of Meta stated that he anticipates "significant acceleration in infrastructure spending growth by 2025" — particularly concerning AI. The company's major competitors — Google, Amazon, and Microsoft — are considering similar plans and already investing billions in data centers to meet the energy demands of artificial intelligence.

Here’s what is known so far:

• In March, Bloomberg reported that Amazon plans to spend about $150 billion and deploy up to 240 data centers by 2040. In October, the company signed three agreements "to support the development of nuclear energy projects," which include the construction of several small modular reactors (SMRs).
• In October, Google announced that it signed "the world's first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear power" from SMRs developed by the California-based company Kairos Power.
• In September, Microsoft and Constellation Energy — the owner of most power plants in the U.S. — announced a 20-year agreement, which includes the reopening of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.

At the same time, the boom in data center construction for AI is accompanied not just by high financial costs, but also by significant energy demands. A McKinsey analysis noted that by 2040, data centers will consume 35 gigawatts of electricity per year (up from 17 gigawatts in 2022).