Oracle designs data center powered by three small nuclear reactors

Oracle Chairman and co-founder Larry Ellison made a “strange” announcement this week.

Ellison told investors during the company’s earnings conference call on Monday that Oracle is considering securing power from next-generation nuclear technology because of the “extraordinary” demand for electricity caused by artificial intelligence.

“I’m going to say something that might sound really strange,” Ellison told analysts. “Well, you’re going to say, ‘He always says weird things, so why is he saying this now? This is really weird.'”

Oracle’s chairman said the company is designing a data center that will require more than 1 gigawatt of power, adding that the data center will be powered by three small nuclear reactors.

“The site and plant that we’ve chosen already has permits to build three reactors,” Ellison said. “These are small modular reactors to power data centers. This is how bad things have gotten. This is what’s happening.”

Ellison did not disclose the locations of the data centers or future reactors. CNBC has reached out to Oracle for comment.

Small modular reactors are a new design that is expected to accelerate the adoption of reliable, carbon-free energy as demand for electricity grows from data centers, manufacturing and the broader electrification of the economy.

Typically these reactors would be under 300 megawatts, about one-third the size of a typical reactor in the current U.S. nuclear fleet. They would be prefabricated in several components and then assembled on site, eliminating the capital costs that have prevented larger reactors.

Currently, small modular reactors are a futuristic technology that nuclear industry executives generally agree won’t be commercially viable in the United States until the 2030s.

There are currently three small modular reactors in operation in the world. Nuclear AgencyTwo of them are in China and Russia, two of America’s main geopolitical adversaries, and Japan also operates a test reactor.