Amazon backs 960 MW Indiana nuclear plan for data center power
AEP and X-energy signed a deal on 19 October to study 12 small reactors, 960 MW, at a retired Indiana coal site. Amazon funds the work in milestones and plans to buy the power. Nothing gets built until the NRC grants a permit.
WIRE · HYPERSCALERS · UNITED STATES · Data as at 20 Oct 2026
Amazon is paying for the paperwork on a nuclear plant it wants to buy power from, and nothing has been built yet. On 19 October 2026 American Electric Power (AEP) and X-energy signed a joint development agreement to study a 960-megawatt small modular reactor plant at the retired Breed coal station in Sullivan County, Indiana. Amazon is funding the development work in milestones and intends to buy the plant's power under a long-term contract that covers its full costs. The plan is 12 of X-energy's 80-megawatt Xe-100 reactors in three blocks of four. There is no cost, no final investment decision, no build date and no licensing route yet. On the Hyperscalers layer, this is the second named site in Amazon's push for more than 5 gigawatts of new nuclear by 2039.
What happened
The deal
AEP and X-energy will study 12 Xe-100 reactors, 960 MW, at the retired Breed station in Indiana
Three blocks of four 80 MW reactors, each block 320 MW, on an AEP-owned brownfield site. It goes to construction only if it reaches a final investment decision
Amazon
Amazon funds development in milestones and intends to buy the power under a long-term contract
AEP says the contract would cover the plant's costs and operations for its term, so existing Indiana Michigan Power customers do not carry the risk. Amazon has not said how much it is putting in
The pipeline
This is the second site in Amazon and X-energy's plan for more than 5 GW of US nuclear by 2039
The first is Energy Northwest's Cascade in Washington, up to 960 MW, where Amazon holds rights to the first 320 MW block. X-energy calls Indiana its third US project in a pipeline of about 11.5 GW
The queue
None of X-energy's three US projects has a construction permit yet
Dow's four-reactor plant at Seadrift, Texas is in the final stage of NRC review. Cascade is still in pre-application talks with the regulator. Indiana is at the feasibility stage
Why cash cares
A hyperscaler that wants firm power for its data centers has three choices. It can wait for the local utility to build, it can buy from a plant that already exists, or it can pay for a new plant to be planned. Amazon has picked the third in Indiana. It is not building the reactors and it will not own them. AEP would own and run the plant through Indiana Michigan Power, which already operates the 2,278-megawatt Cook nuclear plant in Michigan. Amazon pays for the studies now and, if the plant is built, signs up as the first customer for its power.
Start with who gets paid first: X-energy. Amazon's development money arrives in milestones, before any reactor is ordered, and the joint development agreement is between AEP and X-energy, so every study at Breed is done around its Xe-100 design and its TRISO fuel. The releases do not say how the funding is split between the partners. Amazon has backed X-energy before. It led the company's 2024 Series C-1 round, which closed at $700 million and paid for reactor design, licensing work and the first phase of its TRISO-X fuel plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
AEP is paid next, and only later. The utility gets a reason to reuse a coal site it already owns and a buyer who, by its account, would cover the plant's costs and operations for the length of the contract. AEP's chief executive said the agreements give it "all necessary capital protections and financial safeguards" it had said any nuclear project would need. That protects AEP's balance sheet. It does not pay AEP anything until the project clears a final investment decision and starts selling power.
Amazon pays first and is paid last, in megawatts. Its return is firm, carbon-free power for its data centers, and no one has given a date for the first of it.
Here is our own arithmetic, not a company figure. Cascade's full build-out and Indiana add up to 1,920 megawatts of named sites, about 38% of the 5-gigawatt target, which leaves about 3,080 megawatts with no site named, 13 years before the 2039 goal. Counting only the power Amazon has said it means to buy, the first 320-megawatt block at Cascade plus Indiana's 960, the total is 1,280 megawatts, about 26% of the target. Indiana alone is about 8% of X-energy's 11.5-gigawatt pipeline and about 42% of the size of the Cook plant. With the 702-megawatt fuel cell project for Google it announced on 14 October, AEP has put 1,662 megawatts of customer-backed generation on the table in six days.
Figure: Two named sites, one permit queue. Amazon's 5-gigawatt nuclear target against the sites named so far, and where each X-energy US project stands with the regulator. The 1,920 megawatt, 38%, 3,080 megawatt, 1,280 megawatt and 26% figures are our arithmetic on the 19 October announcements.
The step that is still open
A construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Nothing at Breed can be poured until the regulator approves a design for that site, and the partners have not said which licensing route they will take. Before that comes a final investment decision, which needs a cost, an ownership structure and a signed power price. None of those has been published.
Indiana is also third in line for the same reactor. X-energy's first US plant, four Xe-100 units at Dow's Seadrift complex in Texas, is in the final stage of its construction permit review, by X-energy's account. Cascade, Amazon's first site, has been in pre-application talks with the NRC since August 2024, and the regulator's page, last updated on 23 September 2026, still lists no application. All three use the same reactor design, so whatever the regulator asks of Seadrift is likely to shape the reviews behind it.
Ready is not paid. Amazon's check makes the studies ready. It does not make the reactors ready, and none of the three companies earns from a single megawatt-hour until a permit, a final investment decision, a built plant and a signed price arrive together.
The second-order read
Who gets paid. X-energy, as Amazon-funded development work is done around its reactor now, and on reactors and fuel if the plant is built. AEP, on a plant it would own and run, only after a final investment decision.
Who pays. Amazon, through development funding today and a long-term contract that AEP says covers the plant's full costs.
Who waits. Amazon's data centers, which still need grid power or other plants until a reactor runs, and Sullivan County, which waits for the jobs and tax base the plant would bring.
Stuck step. An NRC construction permit for the Breed site, behind Seadrift and Cascade in the same reactor's queue.
Three cautions
This is a feasibility agreement, not a construction contract. The partners have not disclosed the plant's cost, Amazon's funding commitment, the contract's term or price, the ownership structure, or any date for a decision, construction or operation.
The 5-gigawatt and 11.5-gigawatt figures are targets and pipelines set by the companies, not orders. The Xe-100 has not yet run commercially anywhere, and Indiana has a precedent for costly nuclear stops: the Marble Hill plant was abandoned half-built in 1983 after about $2.5 billion had been spent, as TMC Insight noted.
Amazon says the plant would serve both the regional grid and its own data centers. The announcements do not say how much of the output would go to Amazon's sites rather than other customers, or which sites they would be.
What to watch
- Seadrift: whether the NRC issues the construction permit for Dow's four Xe-100 units, the first test of the design.
- Cascade: whether Energy Northwest files its construction permit application with the NRC.
- Breed: which NRC licensing route AEP and X-energy choose, and when.
- Indiana regulators: any filing by Indiana Michigan Power on how the Amazon contract shields other customers.
- Amazon's next site: where the remaining 3,080 megawatts of its 5-gigawatt target would go.
Read: Hyperscalers, AI Data Centers, hyperscaler capex lines to watch and AEP's 702 MW of fuel cells for Google
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Not investment advice. Do your own research. The 1,920 megawatt, 38%, 3,080 megawatt, 1,280 megawatt, 26%, 8%, 42% and 1,662 megawatt figures are our arithmetic.
References
- American Electric Power, "AEP Partners with Amazon and X-energy to Explore Advanced Nuclear Energy in Indiana", 19 Oct 2026. Joint development agreement, 12 Xe-100 units of 80 MW in groups of four, Breed site, Amazon development funding and long-term contract covering costs, final investment decision condition.
- X-energy, "X-energy, Amazon, American Electric Power Partner to Bring SMR Project to Indiana", 19 Oct 2026. Second project under the Amazon collaboration for more than 5 GW by 2039.
- Amazon, "Amazon plans nearly 1 GW nuclear energy project in Indiana", 19 Oct 2026. Amazon as development funder and first power customer; 2024 Series C-1 round of $700 million.
- POWER, "AEP, X-energy Eye 960-MW Nuclear Plant at Retired Indiana Coal Site, Backed by Amazon", 19 Oct 2026. Milestone-based funding, Cascade first 320 MW block rights, 11.5 GW pipeline, Seadrift permit review, Cook plant 2,278 MW, undisclosed terms, AEP's 702 MW Google project on 14 Oct.
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, "Cascade Advanced Energy Facility (Cascade)", updated 23 Sep 2026. Pre-application activities since August 2024 for up to 12 Xe-100 units.
- TMC Insight, "Amazon Funds Indiana Study for 960 MW X-energy Nuclear Project", 19 Oct 2026. Funding amount confidential; Marble Hill abandoned in 1983 after $2.5 billion.
