Meta Expands Geothermal Push with XGS Energy Deal to Power AI Growth
Meta is ramping up its renewable energy strategy with a new partnership aimed at meeting the ballooning electricity demands of artificial intelligence. The tech giant has inked a deal with XGS Energy, a next-generation geothermal startup, to supply 150 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to the power grid supporting Meta's Los Lunas data center in New Mexico.
The agreement marks another significant step in Meta's broader clean energy journey, especially as AI technologies drive unprecedented power consumption across global data centers. Geothermal energy, once limited by geography, is gaining new momentum thanks to emerging technologies like those developed by XGS.
'Advances in AI require continued energy to support infrastructure development,' said Urvi Parekh, Meta's global head of energy, in a press release. 'With next-generation geothermal technologies like XGS ready for scale, geothermal can be a major player in supporting the advancement of technologies like AI as well as domestic data center development.'
Traditional geothermal plants draw heat from naturally occurring underground steam or hot water reservoirs to generate electricity. However, such sources are geographically constrained, leaving geothermal with just a sliver—about 0.5%—of the U.S. energy mix. XGS and other innovators aim to break through those limits with engineered solutions.
XGS Energy's method stands out by using a closed-loop system. Instead of relying on natural cracks and underground water sources, their technology circulates water within a steel casing, minimising the risk of leakage and conserving water—especially vital in arid regions like New Mexico.
This initiative with XGS Energy will roll out in two phases, with the ultimate goal of becoming operational by 2030. Although Meta has not disclosed the financial details, the investment reinforces its commitment to its 2020 pledge of reaching net-zero emissions by the decade's end.
Yet, the road to net-zero is complex. AI infrastructure is driving up power demands sharply, and without a strong push for clean energy solutions, tech giants like Meta risk veering off course from their climate goals. The company has been proactive, recently announcing efforts to bring an old nuclear plant back online and exploring other geothermal deals, such as a 150MW partnership with Sage Geosystems. Sage's technology taps into hot, dry rock formations by drilling and injecting water to simulate natural geothermal reservoirs.
Google is also exploring this clean energy frontier, backing similar efforts through a collaboration with Fervo, another geothermal startup innovating in this space.
Despite these advancements, Meta's carbon emissions have grown since its climate commitments were announced—largely driven by AI development and global data center expansion. In Louisiana, plans for three new gas-powered plants to support a new Meta data facility have raised questions about the balance between growth and sustainability.
Still, projects like the XGS Energy deal offer a glimpse into a possible future where AI and environmental stewardship go hand in hand. By investing in scalable geothermal solutions, Meta is not just meeting its energy needs—it's helping to shape the next chapter in clean energy innovation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
32 minutes ago
- Mint
How to make ChatGPT forget any sensitive information
ChatGPT's ability to remember and reference past conversations allows it to personalize responses, making interactions more seamless and context-aware. For example, you can ask, 'Based on our past conversations, what do you know about me?" and it will tailor answers using stored data. While this 'long-term memory" enhances human-AI interaction, it poses risks: ChatGPT might retain sensitive details: personal, financial, or otherwise, raising privacy concerns if not managed properly. How to access: Available in ChatGPT's settings (ensure 'Reference chat history' feature is enabled). hatGPT's memory feature can help you: Example: 'Based on what you know about me from past conversations, help me list potentially sensitive and personal things you know about me." 'Please forget [insert specific detail, e.g., my phone number]." What makes this feature special? Pro tip: Use AI tools smartly, but always prioritize privacy. Mint's 'AI tool of the week' is excerpted from Leslie D'Monte's weekly TechTalk newsletter. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your email inbox. Note: The tools and analysis featured in this section demonstrated clear value based on our internal testing. Our recommendations are entirely independent and not influenced by the tool creators. Jaspreet Bindra is co-founder and CEO of AI&Beyond. Anuj Magazine is also a co-founder.
Economic Times
34 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Big Tech's acqui-hire strategy heats up as demand for AI talent soars
Live Events Meta's $15 billion investment in Scale AI for a 49% stake is the latest in a series of transactions that large technology companies have made to acquire talent as they seek to get ahead in the AI acquihiring is not just a trend, but a strategic necessity for these companies and is likely to see more traction, as the demand for AI talents will continue to increase, say the last two years, large technology players have been acquiring AI startups for their technology teams. Microsoft paid $650 million in a licensing deal to Inflection AI, whose cofounder Mustafa Suleyman is now heading Microsoft AI. In a similar licensing deal, Amazon hired AI startup Adept cofounder David Luan and others who joined Amazon's AGI the home front in India, well-funded AI startups Krutrim and Sarvam acquired semiconductor startup Bodhi Computing and legal platform Samta Law, respectively, to enter new are a couple of reasons for this. 'We're at an inflection point where foundational AI talent is in such short supply and high demand that companies are willing to buy entire teams to accelerate their AI roadmap,' said Sachin Arora, partner and leader – data & analytics, agents and cloud at PwC Meta for instance. Following the $15 billion investment, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang will report to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and will lead the social media giant's new AI lab focused on pointed out that unlike in the software-as-a-service sector, where acquihires were often about engineering execution, in AI, it's about vision, research and IP. "You're acquiring not just builders but boundary-pushers, people who define what's next,' he a few years ago, when acquisitions were a norm, regulatory scrutiny has increased in recent times. EY India technology consulting partner Hari Balaji said established tech giants are seeing escalating regulatory scrutiny prompting them to grow through reverse acquihires without triggering anti-trust addition to this, acquihires are also an avenue for companies to enter highly competitive sectors and acquire new customers.A lot of this is stemming from a small pool of talent that is currently available in AI.A Bengaluru-based investor earlier told ET on the condition of anonymity that beyond accelerating the AI journey, increasing the market share and acquiring new capabilities are the other reasons for M&As and acquihires. 'In our portfolio, some of the startups are evaluating companies that bring key AI capabilities for one of the three reasons mentioned,' he had these are early days in India. 'What we are seeing are small deals or acquihires and not large deals that would attract large enterprises yet, which are a huge value add,' Kae Capital general partner Gaurav Chaturvedi earlier told ET. 'Those are beginning to happen in the US. These will take time to pan out in India.'
Economic Times
34 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Lateral hiring: TCS to hold interviews in Mumbai, Bengaluru, other cities on Saturday
India's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is holding interviews for lateral hiring for mid-level roles at its offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune, among other locations, on June 14, in a sign of increasing demand for experienced and skilled technology professionals. In Bengaluru, TCS has said that it will hold walk-in in-person interviews at its office at Brigade Bhuwalka Icon on ITPL main road in Whitefield from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm, paving the way for skilled workers to join its AI-Cloud team, according to a public notice by TCS. The Tata subsidiary is looking for people with experience ranging from 5-15 years, and it differs from role to role. The company is seeking to recruit people with skills in Java fullstack & Microservices developer, Azure data engineer, Power BI developer, Workfront Fusion developer, Python developer, Microservices (GCP cloud run), Azure devops, and AWS DevOps+ comes after a lull in overall hiring in the financial year ending March 2025 due to continued macro uncertainties, which escalated in February as tariff wars initiated by the US government. The US is the largest market for software outsourcing majors. This led to a pause in technology demand from corporate had added a meagre 625 employees during the fourth quarter of FY25. This came after a reduction of 5,370 employees in the December quarter. TCS did not respond to an email seeking details. Traditionally, the largest recruiters of engineering professionals, the software service providers, have been slowing their employee intake over the past two latest face-to-face interviews to be held by TCS come after it organised similar recruitment rounds in March and April in five cities. Details of the vacancies and hiring numbers were not immediately hiring drive would help the company support the ongoing and new projects, according to people close to the development. The TCS hiring comes alongside its smaller rival Infosys undertaking a similar lateral hiring exercise. In March, Bengaluru-headquartered Infosys had put out an internal mail stating it was looking for people across 40-plus skill sets, including cloud computing, cyber security, Java Python, dotnet, Android/IoS development, and automation testing. Last week, ET reported that Infosys has also introduced a cash reward policy for senior employees who conduct interviews for lateral hiring, in what is seen as a move to focus on skilled mid-level positions as well as to boost employee morale.
