Amazon will help pay for a 12-reactor nuclear plant on an old Indiana coal site, and it wants to buy the power first

Amazon, X-energy and American Electric Power said on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, that they will study building 12 of X-energy's Xe-100 small modular reactors at the former Breed coal plant site in Sullivan County, Indiana — 960 megawatts for the regional grid and Amazon's data centers, with Amazon funding development and lined up as the first buyer of the power.

Every AI data-center announcement now comes with a power problem attached, and the big clouds have decided to buy their way into the nuclear business. Here Amazon is doing more than signing a contract for future power — it is fronting development money for reactors that exist so far only as a design and a rendering. The catch is the order of operations: X-energy's first plant in Texas still hasn't broken ground, so Indiana's 12 reactors depend on the first four working. If they do, a retired coal site turns into one of the biggest new nuclear projects in the country. If they don't, this is a well-funded feasibility study with a very nice picture.

X-energy and American Electric Power signed a Joint Development Agreement to advance feasibility work on a proposed 960-megawatt plant of 12 Xe-100 small modular reactors, 80 megawatts each, near the former site of the retired Breed Generating Station in Sullivan County, Indiana. A Joint Development Agreement here means the companies agreed to study whether to build the plant, not that construction is approved. Small modular reactors are factory-built nuclear units meant to be smaller than a traditional plant. A megawatt is how much power a plant can put out at one moment. TechCrunch locates the site just south of Terre Haute. The land is an AEP-owned brownfield coal site — previously used industrial ground. AEP and its Indiana Michigan Power utility would operate the plant if it is built. Those terms are the companies' and TechCrunch's.

Amazon will provide project development funding — X-energy calls it "milestone-based development capital" — and would be the first customer to buy the plant's power. Utility Dive reports that if the plant is built, Amazon would buy the power under a long-term contract that covers the costs of the facility and its operations. The announcements name Amazon as the first buyer. They do not say the plant would sell power to Amazon alone. Those lines are X-energy's, Amazon's and Utility Dive's.

The power would serve both the regional grid and Amazon's data centers. Amazon cites electricity demand driven by electrification, manufacturing and "the rapid expansion of AI." Those lines are Amazon's.

This is the second project in Amazon and X-energy's collaboration to add more than 5 gigawatts of U.S. nuclear capacity by 2039, after Energy Northwest's Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Washington state. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts. TechCrunch says the Indiana plan is three times larger than the first. Amazon led X-energy's $700 million Series C-1 in 2024. Those figures are the companies' and TechCrunch's.

The Xe-100 is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor using helium coolant and TRISO fuel. High-temperature gas-cooled means the reactor uses helium gas, not water, to carry heat. TRISO is a coated nuclear fuel particle. Amazon says the project could create more than 1,000 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent jobs. Those lines are Amazon's. The companies did not disclose a cost, a construction start date or an in-service date.

AEP chief executive Bill Fehrman said the agreements "will provide all necessary capital protections and financial safeguards that we have said are essential for any potential nuclear project to move forward." Amazon's Josh Weissman said "we're looking to develop nearly a gigawatt of carbon-free power for the regional grid and pay our full costs without passing them to others." Those quotations are theirs, as the companies print them.

Utility Dive reports the companies did not give a timeline. TechCrunch reports that X-energy has not yet broken ground on its first plant, a four-reactor project at a Dow chemical site in Seadrift, Texas, whose construction permit is in the final phases of Nuclear Regulatory Commission review. X-energy went public in April and its shares have fallen by nearly two-thirds since, TechCrunch reports. Utility Dive also reports that Indiana Michigan Power expects Indiana peak load to jump from 2,800 megawatts to more than 7,000 megawatts by 2030, driven by large new loads. Peak load is the most electricity the state is expected to need at once. Those lines are Utility Dive's and TechCrunch's. The Indiana plant is a feasibility and development agreement, not an approval to build.

The picture is a rendering of the proposed 12-reactor Xe-100 plant on the former Breed coal site in Sullivan County, Indiana. It is the official image from Amazon's announcement. It is a rendering, not a photograph of a plant that exists.

In plain terms, Amazon, X-energy and AEP said on Monday that they will study a 12-reactor, 960-megawatt plant on a retired Indiana coal site, with Amazon putting up development money and lined up as the first buyer of the power. The electricity would serve the regional grid and Amazon's data centers. X-energy's first plant, in Texas, has not broken ground. No cost or in-service date was given.