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NextEra Expands Google Cloud Partnership, Secures Clean Energy Contracts with Meta

Electric power transmission pylon miniatures and Nextera Energy logo are seen in this illustration taken, December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Electric power transmission pylon miniatures and Nextera Energy logo are seen in this illustration taken, December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
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NextEra Expands Google Cloud Partnership, Secures Clean Energy Contracts with Meta

Electric power transmission pylon miniatures and Nextera Energy logo are seen in this illustration taken, December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Electric power transmission pylon miniatures and Nextera Energy logo are seen in this illustration taken, December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

NextEra Energy expanded its partnership with Alphabet's Google Cloud to scale up data center capacity, while securing over 2.5 gigawatts of clean energy contracts from Meta across the US, the company said on Monday.

Shares of NextEra were up 2.7% in premarket trading.

Under the expanded deal with Google Cloud, the companies will develop multiple new gigawatt-scale (GW) data centre campuses, each with accompanying generation and capacity, Reuters reported.

NextEra and Google Cloud plan to launch an AI-powered product by mid-2026 to predict equipment issues, optimize crew scheduling and boost grid reliability amid storms, aging assets, and rising demand.

The deal comes as US electricity demand grows due to rapid AI adoption, prompting cloud companies and utilities to secure land, grid connections and new generation to support large data center loads.

In October, the company had partnered with Google to restart an Iowa nuclear power plant shut down five years ago.

The technology industry's quest for massive amounts of electricity for AI processing has renewed interest in the country's nuclear reactors.

NextEra said it had signed 11 power purchase agreements and two energy storage agreements with Meta, totaling over 2.5 GW of clean energy contracts. The projects are scheduled to come online between 2026 and 2028.

The utility also reached an agreement with WPPI Energy to continue supplying 168 megawatts of the output from the Point Beach Nuclear Plant in Two Rivers into the 2050s.

Separately, NextEra forecast higher adjusted profit in 2026 as well as the current-year as it continues to benefit from the surge in power demand.

NextEra now expects adjusted earnings for 2025 of between $3.62 and $3.70 per share, compared with its prior view of between $3.45 and $3.70 per share.

For 2026, it expects adjusted profit between $3.92 and $4.02 per share, compared with its prior view of between $3.63 and $4.00 per share.

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Technology

Snapchat Blocks 415,000 Underage Accounts in Australia

Snapchat says teens may be skirting a social media ban in Australia (Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV)
Snapchat says teens may be skirting a social media ban in Australia (Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV)
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Snapchat Blocks 415,000 Underage Accounts in Australia

Snapchat says teens may be skirting a social media ban in Australia (Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV)
Snapchat says teens may be skirting a social media ban in Australia (Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV)

Snapchat has blocked 415,000 accounts under Australia's social media ban for under-16s, the company said Monday, but warned some youngsters may be bypassing age verification technology.

The platform urged the Australian authorities to oblige app stores to check users' ages as an "additional safeguard" for the world-first crackdown, AFP said.

Platforms including Snapchat, Meta, TikTok and YouTube must stop underage users from holding accounts under the legislation, which came into effect on December 10.

Companies face fines of Aus$49.5 million (US$34 million) if they fail to take "reasonable steps" to comply.

Australia's eSafety online regulator reported last month that tech giants had already blocked 4.7 million accounts, delivering "significant outcomes".

As of the end of January, Snapchat said it had blocked or disabled 415,000 Snapchat accounts in Australia belonging to under-16s.

"We continue to lock more accounts daily," it said in an online statement.

But the law leaves "significant gaps", Snapchat said, arguing that age estimation technology was only accurate to within two to three years.

"In practice, this means some young people under 16 may be able to bypass protections, potentially leaving them with reduced safeguards, while others over 16 may incorrectly lose access."

Snapchat joined billionaire Mark Zuckerberg's Meta in calling on Australia to require app stores to check users' ages before allowing downloads.

"Creating a centralized verification system at the app-store level would allow for more consistent protection and higher barriers to circumventing the law," Snapchat said.

The platform said it did not believe an outright ban was the right approach.

Snapchat said it understood Australia's objectives and wanted to protect people online, but did not agree its platform should be covered by the social media ban.

"In the case of Snapchat -- which is primarily a messaging app used by young people to stay connected with close friends and family -- we do not believe that cutting teens off from these relationships makes them safer, happier, or otherwise better off," it said.

Technology

Nvidia Boss Insists 'Huge' Investment in OpenAI on Track

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang insists the US tech giant is going to make 'a huge investment in OpenAI'. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP/File
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang insists the US tech giant is going to make 'a huge investment in OpenAI'. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP/File
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Nvidia Boss Insists 'Huge' Investment in OpenAI on Track

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang insists the US tech giant is going to make 'a huge investment in OpenAI'. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP/File
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang insists the US tech giant is going to make 'a huge investment in OpenAI'. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP/File

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted the US tech giant will make a "huge" investment in OpenAI and dismissed as "nonsense" reports that he is unhappy with the generative AI star.

Huang made the remarks late Saturday in Taipei after the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI had been put on ice, said AFP.

Nvidia announced the plan in September to invest $100 billion in OpenAI, building infrastructure for next-generation artificial intelligence.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, said some people inside Nvidia had expressed doubts about the deal and that the two sides were rethinking the partnership.

"That's complete nonsense. We are going to make a huge investment in OpenAI," Huang told journalists, when asked about reports that he was unhappy with OpenAI.

Huang insisted that Nvidia was going ahead with its investment in OpenAI, describing it as "one of the most consequential companies of our time".

"Sam is closing the round, and we will absolutely be involved in the round," Huang said, referring to OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.

"We will invest a great deal of money, probably the largest investment we've ever made."

Nvidia has come to dominate spending on the processors needed for training and operating the large language models (LLM) behind chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google Gemini.

Sales of its graphics processing units (GPUs) -- originally developed for 3D gaming -- powered the company's market cap to over $5 trillion in October, although the figure has since fallen back by more than $600 billion.

LLM developers like OpenAI are directing much of the mammoth investment they have received into Nvidia's products, rushing to build GPU-stuffed data centers to serve an anticipated flood of demand for AI services.

Technology

Meta Shares Skyrocket, Microsoft Slides on Wall Street after Earnings

A Microsoft logo is seen a day after Microsoft Corp's $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn Corp, in Los Angeles, California, US, June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
A Microsoft logo is seen a day after Microsoft Corp's $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn Corp, in Los Angeles, California, US, June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
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Meta Shares Skyrocket, Microsoft Slides on Wall Street after Earnings

A Microsoft logo is seen a day after Microsoft Corp's $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn Corp, in Los Angeles, California, US, June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
A Microsoft logo is seen a day after Microsoft Corp's $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn Corp, in Los Angeles, California, US, June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Shares in Meta skyrocketed by 10 percent at opening on Wall Street on Thursday, a day after the social media giant posted better than expected earnings as the company invests heavily in artificial intelligence.

Microsoft, whose earnings disappointed analysts, saw its share price tumble by 10 percent, with investors showing concern for the return on investment for the software giant's spending on AI.