Meta Enters Power Trading To Support Its AI Energy Needs (bloomberg.com)
(Friday November 21, 2025 @11:41AM (msmash)
from the how-about-that dept.)
- Reference: 0180162969
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/21/1534212/meta-enters-power-trading-to-support-its-ai-energy-needs
- Source link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-21/meta-enters-power-trading-to-support-ai-data-centers
Meta is [1]venturing into the complex world of electricity trading , betting it can accelerate the construction of new US power plants that are vital to its AI ambitions. From a report:
> The foray into power trading comes after Meta heard from investors and plant developers that too few power buyers were willing to make the early, long-term commitments required to spur investment, according to Urvi Parekh, the company's head of global energy. Trading electricity will give the company the flexibility to enter more of those longer contracts.
>
> Plant developers "want to know that the consumers of power are willing to put skin in the game," Parekh said in an interview. "Without Meta taking a more active voice in the need to expand the amount of power that's on the system, it's not happening as quickly as we would like."
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-21/meta-enters-power-trading-to-support-ai-data-centers
> The foray into power trading comes after Meta heard from investors and plant developers that too few power buyers were willing to make the early, long-term commitments required to spur investment, according to Urvi Parekh, the company's head of global energy. Trading electricity will give the company the flexibility to enter more of those longer contracts.
>
> Plant developers "want to know that the consumers of power are willing to put skin in the game," Parekh said in an interview. "Without Meta taking a more active voice in the need to expand the amount of power that's on the system, it's not happening as quickly as we would like."
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-21/meta-enters-power-trading-to-support-ai-data-centers
The trick to powering AI (Score:2)
by TheMiddleRoad ( 1153113 )
The trick is to raise prices enough that poor people can no longer heat their homes this winter. Then Facebook will have all the electricity they need without having to bribe trump into giving loan guarantees on nuclear plants.
And now they're in Enron's line of business (Score:2)
by ebunga ( 95613 )
They do realize that Enron was one of the few instances of the rich and powerful going to prison, right?
Upside, if it's a bubble (Score:2)
It would be very bad economically if the AI boom popped. But there would be a lot of extra electricity on the market and improvements to the grid.
Re: (Score:2)
I really don't think all these datacenters will ever be built. There are always more plans and announcements than what comes to fruition. The only way so many datacenters will be needed (i.e. economically viable) is if AI is so revolutionary to the economy that it would affect our power consumption in very unpredictable ways, likely offsetting a lot of activity in meatspace.