WEBVTT - AWS CEO Matt Garman Talks Amazon Nuclear Investment

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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<v Speaker 2>Amazon also announcing half a billion dollar investment in nuclear

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<v Speaker 2>clean energy. Here to discuss it, Matt Goarman, CEO of AWS,

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<v Speaker 2>and Matt welcome back to Blimberg Technology. It's so interesting

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<v Speaker 2>to see that. Thank you to see the hyperscaler is

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<v Speaker 2>so focused on this. I think we start with y SMRs, right,

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<v Speaker 2>that's a very specific avenue to go down.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 3>I think SMRs are a great new technology and they're

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<v Speaker 3>an important part of the energy landscape that we're looking at.

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<v Speaker 3>We made a five hundred million dollar investment in a

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<v Speaker 3>company called x Energy that are really I think they're

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<v Speaker 3>one of the leaders in this space, and they're really

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<v Speaker 3>pushing on the technology SMRs.

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<v Speaker 1>They have a couple of advantages.

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<v Speaker 3>They're able to be constructed in a smaller footprint, which

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<v Speaker 3>means you can put them.

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<v Speaker 1>Closer to where the energy needs to be.

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<v Speaker 3>They're also incredibly safe and easily manufactural, and so they're

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<v Speaker 3>very promising technology and we're quite excited about our investments

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<v Speaker 3>in this space and the partnerships that we have coming up.

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<v Speaker 4>Small modular reactors SMRs for those getting in the acronym lingo.

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<v Speaker 4>Matt it's great to have you. What about other deals,

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<v Speaker 4>I mean, is this the first of many?

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And so a couple of details on the things

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<v Speaker 3>that we announced yesterday. One, we have this investment with

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<v Speaker 3>x Energy, who's a producer of these. But we also

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<v Speaker 3>have announced two partnerships with utilities, and so we're actually

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<v Speaker 3>well down the path, ongoing and actually implementing some of

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<v Speaker 3>these deals. So we have a partnership with Dominion in

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<v Speaker 3>Virginia to go implement an SMR as part of their

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<v Speaker 3>energy footprint here in Virginia, and with Energy Northwest in

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<v Speaker 3>Washington and Oregon, and our goal is to deliver more

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<v Speaker 3>than five gigawatts of nuclear energy. We think that it's

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<v Speaker 3>a fantastic opportunity for us to keep pushing on the

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<v Speaker 3>carbon energy footprint that's needed as we continue to scale

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<v Speaker 3>around the country.

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<v Speaker 2>Matt, if you're well down the path, and based on

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<v Speaker 2>what you just said, do you have a clear line

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<v Speaker 2>of sight on what the dollar per mega what hour

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<v Speaker 2>is going to be out of those facilities.

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<v Speaker 1>We don't know that yet.

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<v Speaker 3>We're still we are still early and we're still learning

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<v Speaker 3>many of these technologies for these reactors or probably won't

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<v Speaker 3>come online until twenty thirty, so.

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<v Speaker 1>We'll still be learning there, but we feel that as

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<v Speaker 1>we scale and in.

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<v Speaker 3>The fullness of time, these energy sources are going to

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<v Speaker 3>be quite competitive from a cost perspective, and it's one

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<v Speaker 3>of the reasons that we're so excited about them.

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<v Speaker 2>Would you bring back a full nuclear plant like three

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<v Speaker 2>Mile Island in Pennsylvania And if so, which.

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<v Speaker 3>One, well that I wouldn't have done that one in particular.

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<v Speaker 3>But we actually have a partnership with Talent where we're

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<v Speaker 3>bringing more energy online in Pennsylvania and that's we're actually

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<v Speaker 3>the very first company to announce a deal with Talent

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<v Speaker 3>several months ago. And so I think that some of

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<v Speaker 3>these large nuclear plants are also excellent source of energy

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<v Speaker 3>and they're an important part of that. And as I said,

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<v Speaker 3>I think small modular reactors are going to be a

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<v Speaker 3>component of what we need for a carbon free energy world,

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<v Speaker 3>but large nuclear plants are going to be an important

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<v Speaker 3>part of that too. And we've said that we'll take

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<v Speaker 3>as much as almost a gigawot of power that we're

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<v Speaker 3>bringing back online from this large plant in Pennsylvania, where

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<v Speaker 3>we'll also be building data centers nearby. So I think

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<v Speaker 3>it's all an important part of the portfolio as we

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<v Speaker 3>move to decarbonize the energy.

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<v Speaker 4>Let's talk about the decarbonization because back when you announce

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<v Speaker 4>that deal in March with Susquehanna, you talked about how

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<v Speaker 4>still the aim is to be by twenty twenty five

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<v Speaker 4>one hundred percent renewable energy. Is that attainable with a

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<v Speaker 4>sudden desire to have AI and the energy that goes

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<v Speaker 4>with it.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, In fact, we announced that this year we hit

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<v Speaker 3>one hundred percent carbon free energy in our systems, and

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<v Speaker 3>I think that now our goal is how do we

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<v Speaker 3>as we look at all of the energy demands that

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<v Speaker 3>the business and the world frankly needs, how do we

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<v Speaker 3>get to a continued path on growing carbon free energy.

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<v Speaker 3>And so that's what a lot of these deals are about,

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<v Speaker 3>is for the future.

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<v Speaker 1>As we look.

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<v Speaker 3>At power that we're going to need in twenty five,

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<v Speaker 3>twenty seven, thirty, twenty forty, how do we make sure

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<v Speaker 3>that we have a ramp of power so that as

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<v Speaker 3>the energy needs grow, whether they're from electric vehicles or

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<v Speaker 3>from companies increasingly digitizing, or from generative AI, that we

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<v Speaker 3>have enough carbon free energy to support them. And so

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<v Speaker 3>it's really a long term view that we have and

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<v Speaker 3>part of this is on that long term view, how

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<v Speaker 3>we continue.

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<v Speaker 1>To have enough power well into the future.

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<v Speaker 4>Let's talk about the short term view if we come

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<v Speaker 4>for a minute, Matt, though, because right here, right now,

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<v Speaker 4>do you have the power that is necessary from the

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<v Speaker 4>places you want to be getting it from.

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<v Speaker 1>We work really hard to make sure that we do.

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<v Speaker 3>Our businesses continuing to grow rapidly, and we're adding new

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<v Speaker 3>power and new data centers all of the time, and

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<v Speaker 3>so we continue we look further out. We have power

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<v Speaker 3>that we're adding in twenty four, power that we're adding

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<v Speaker 3>in twenty twenty five, and continue out. And as you

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<v Speaker 3>may have heard, over the last five years, Amazon has

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<v Speaker 3>been the single biggest purchaser of renewable power contracts in

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<v Speaker 3>the world every year for the last five years, and

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<v Speaker 3>so we.

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<v Speaker 1>Continue to do that.

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<v Speaker 3>We continue to add power to our footprint, and we

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<v Speaker 3>plan multiple years out because these projects that we go

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<v Speaker 3>and launch they take many years to come online, and

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<v Speaker 3>so we have lots of plans and we continue to

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<v Speaker 3>grow as the needs of our customers grow.

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<v Speaker 2>Matt, Will you have any Blackwell online by the end

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<v Speaker 2>of this year?

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<v Speaker 1>No?

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<v Speaker 3>Unfortunately, in videos, timelines have shifted on that and so

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<v Speaker 3>and so. We have samples in the lab and we're

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<v Speaker 3>working on them right now, but production qualities are production

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<v Speaker 3>quantities we expect to be early next year.

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<v Speaker 1>We work very.

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<v Speaker 3>Closely with in Vidio on GPUs and super excited about

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<v Speaker 3>that launch. And in Video's own large research cluster is

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<v Speaker 3>actually launching in as so we'll have the first production

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<v Speaker 3>qualities will be in AWS when they're ready, But so

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<v Speaker 3>right now we're working with them and we have early samples,

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<v Speaker 3>but as they get their yields up from the respind

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<v Speaker 3>of the Blackwell chip, it'll probably be early next year

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<v Speaker 3>before we really get production samples in real volume.

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<v Speaker 4>Another partnership then Anthropics work on the chips. How is

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<v Speaker 4>that going?

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<v Speaker 1>Briefly fantastic.

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<v Speaker 3>Anthropic continues to deliver fantastic new models. Their Sonnet three

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<v Speaker 3>to five model is one of the most powerful ones

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<v Speaker 3>that is out there today and customers really enjoying using

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<v Speaker 3>it on a variety of tasks. I think the reasoning

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<v Speaker 3>is industry and world class and a bunch of the

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<v Speaker 3>capabilities that enterprises are able to deliver, and the value

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<v Speaker 3>they get from those models is really it's fun to

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<v Speaker 3>watch and we really enjoy that partnership and we continue

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<v Speaker 3>to expect it to go for a long time.

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<v Speaker 4>Matt Carman, AWS CEO, we appreciate your time. Thank you,