Amazon Backs 960-MW Nuclear Plan in Indiana for the Grid and Data Centers
Amazon has agreed with X-energy and American Electric Power to fund development of a new nuclear facility in Indiana that would supply up to 960 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to the regional grid and to Amazon's data centers, according to company and press reports published on Oct. 19, 2026. The Verge
The proposed site is Fairbanks in Sullivan County, Indiana, on land owned by AEP. It is the former site of the Breed Generating Station, a coal-fueled plant that is now closed. AEP describes the location as the former site of I&M's Breed Generating Station. AEP
The design centers on 12 Xe-100 small modular reactors, smaller units meant to be built in factories and installed together rather than as one very large reactor. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts, so 960 megawatts is just under a gigawatt. At full output, the 960-MW facility would feed the regional power system while also serving Amazon load. That two-sided setup, grid connection on one side and contracted data center demand on the other, has become common in recent hyperscale nuclear deals.
AEP and X-energy describe the current work as an evaluation of the 960-MW project with backing from Amazon. POWER Magazine Bloomberg separately reported on Oct. 19, 2026 that American Electric Power was working with Amazon to evaluate the plans. Terms were not disclosed.
Amazon published its own announcement titled "Amazon plans nearly 1 GW nuclear energy project in Indiana" on Oct. 16, 2026. AEP published its own announcement titled "AEP Partners with Amazon and X-energy to Explore ..." on Oct. 19, 2026. Neither announcement included a timeline for construction or operation.
Amazon said the Indiana facility could create 1,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent roles. Those figures cover expected on-site employment, not supply chain or indirect jobs.
The Indiana project is the second nuclear collaboration between Amazon and X-energy. With regional utilities, the companies aim to deploy more than 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity in the United States by 2039.
The first project in that sequence is the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Washington, also planned with 12 advanced reactors. Construction on Cascade is not expected to start until the end of this decade.
The broader context here is procurement at scale rather than a single plant. Twelve units at one site, twelve at another, and a 5-gigawatt target point to a fleet approach with repeated units. For utility planners, repetition can simplify licensing, workforce training, fuel logistics and spare parts. For data center operators, 960-MW blocks fit large campus buildouts more cleanly than one-off gigawatt-scale light-water units, the traditional very large reactor type.
Looking at what this means for deployment, reuse of the retired coal site does practical work. Using AEP-owned land preserves switchyard access, transmission rights of way and community familiarity with power generation. It does not remove the longer gating items. Site characterization, licensing, fuel supply and construction sequencing still determine schedule, and none of those schedules were included in the announcements.
In my view, the cautious wording is the most informative part. Fund, partner, explore and evaluate are not construction verbs. They describe optionality around a defined technology choice, the Xe-100, and a defined location. Worth flagging for readers tracking AI infrastructure: nuclear buying of this type is about firm capacity over decades, not matching hourly load next year. If the Indiana evaluation converts to construction, its value would be baseload carbon-free power that lets wind, solar and storage do what they do best without forcing the grid to carry data center growth on intermittent resources alone.
