Constellation, Meta agree on 20-year nuclear energy deal
June 3 (UPI) -- Constellation Energy Corporation announced Tuesday it has made a deal to provide the Meta technology company with clean energy for a couple of decades.
Constellation said it signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Meta for the output of the Clinton Clean Energy Center, located in Clinton, Ill., to help Meta meet its clean energy goals and operations in central and southern Illinois with more than 1,100 megawatts of emissions-free nuclear energy.
"We are excited to partner with Constellation and the Clinton community to ensure the long-term operations of the nuclear plant, add new capacity, and help preserve over 1,000 jobs," Meta's Head of Global Energy Urvi Parekh said.
The agreement will launch in June of 2027, and supports the relicensing and continued operations of Constellation's high-performing nuclear facility in Clinton once the state's ratepayer-funded zero-emission credit program has expired. The deal will allow the facility to expand its energy output by 30 megawatts and preserve 1,100 local jobs. The pact is also expected to bring in $13.5 million in annual tax revenue, and to provide $1 million to area nonprofits over a period of five years.
Constellation CEO and president Joe Dominguez said the company was proud to partner with Meta as it "figured out that supporting the relicensing and expansion of existing plants is just as impactful as finding new sources of energy."
"Sometimes the most important part of our journey forward is to stop taking steps backwards," Dominguez said.
The Clinton Clean Energy Center, which employs more than 530 people, contributes around $13.5 million in annual taxes and generates enough electricity to power over 800,000 homes, was scheduled to close in 2017 due to several years of financial losses. However, it was saved by the Future Energy Jobs Act, which created a Zero Emission Credit program that provided the plant enough financial support to support it into 2027.
The deal with Meta will replace that program and keep the plant operational without ratepayer support.
Meta's deal with the plant also fits its pledge signed in March to join other major corporate energy users to support the tripling of nuclear energy capacity by 2050.
Both companies have apparently already benefited financially following the agreement, as Constellation shares were up 2.38% by 7:45 a.m. in pre-market trading, while Meta jumped 3.62%.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Robinhood, AppLovin Locked Out of S&P 500 Yet Again
Consider it the 'Hot or Not' list of the business world. And who's not hot? Robinhood and AppLovin, for starters. At least, not quite hot enough. Shares of both companies are slipping this week after each failed to break into the S&P 500, disappointing eager investors who thought they looked like strong candidates to get tapped for the big leagues during the index's quarterly adjustments. Alas, they remain on the outside looking in. READ ALSO: Meta's Scoping Out a Superintelligence Lab and Not Lovin' It: McDonald's Suffers Third Downgrade in as Many Trading Days Conventional wisdom says being on the S&P 500 isn't just a status symbol. It's one that is supposed to come with plenty of benefits. Namely: a steady rise in passive inflows, as index funds and ETFs tracking it buy up stock. It's a major reason why both Robinhood and AppLovin saw positive share price movement through May as speculation swirled that they might be called up to the A-Team. For context: Robinhood is still up 26% in the past month, and AppLovin almost 11%, though they have slipped 3% and 8%, respectively, since the index revealed on Friday it'd be adding no new companies in its latest round of quarterly rebalancing. That means short-term investors looking for a quick fix by betting that the companies would score S&P 500 membership — and post-membership gains — got singed by the bad news. On the other hand, research shows that scoring that shiny new credential may not mean much in the long run anyhow, despite what conventional wisdom might have you believe: In a study published last year, researchers at McKinsey analyzed hundreds of companies that were added or removed from the S&P 500 and found that company's stock prices ultimately returned to their 'intrinsic value' within two months of the inclusion or removal, writing 'shareholder returns drive index inclusion or exclusion, not the other way around.' In fact, that temporary bump may be getting smaller and smaller. In a study titled 'The Disappearing Index Effect' published last year, a pair of Harvard Business School researchers found 'the abnormal return associated with a stock being added to the S&P 500 has fallen from an average of 7.4% in the 1990s to less than 1% over the past decade.' Door Policy: To get an S&P 500 nod, companies have to meet several criteria, including having a market cap of $20.5 billion or higher and having a positive sum of GAAP net income over the four most recent consecutive quarters. Robinhood and AppLovin check those boxes, so why the rejection? One theory recently floated by Barron's is that they've both been more volatile than the broader market — though that didn't prevent the similarly volatile CoinBase from getting accepted in May. In other words: Earning a spot on the premier index is sort of like trying to enter Berghain, the popular all-night dance club in Berlin with an infamously arbitrary door policy. This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive delivering razor sharp analysis and perspective on all things finance, economics, and markets, subscribe to our free The Daily Upside newsletter. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Not Lovin' It: McDonald's Suffers Third Downgrade in as Many Trading Days
Could GLP-1 weight loss drugs and changing economic winds really take a bite out of the almighty Big Mac? Analyst after analyst after analyst seems to think so, as Redburn Atlantic on Tuesday became the third firm in as many trading days to downgrade McDonald's stock, often heralded as recession-proof. READ ALSO: Meta's Scoping Out a Superintelligence Lab and Robinhood, AppLovin Locked Out of S&P 500 Yet Again For years, McDonald's has been like the Dennis Rodman of the market. No, not for the ear piercings or the wild publicity antics or the Van Damme action movie: for being possibly the best defensive stock in the business. Shares in the fast food company outperformed the market in the 12 months leading up to all five recessions in the past 40 years and in the majority of recessionary periods that followed. With 41,000 locations, its massive scale allows it to set competitive prices, and 90% of its locations are franchises, meaning it obtained that scale with minimal capital investment. That has allowed McDonald's to focus on its chief proposition to customers: value. The sudden spate of downgrades, however, has called into question whether both behavioral and financial realities could erode the defensive prowess of the Golden Arches by rendering that proposition insufficient on its own: First under threat is McDonald's value proposition to consumers worried about the economy. McDonald's has seen same-store sales drop in the US for two straight quarters, with a 3.6% dip in the latest period and executives flagging even more concerning 10% drop-offs in traffic from lower- and middle-income consumers in the same period. On top of that, Redburn Atlantic analysts argued as they double-downgraded McDonald's from 'buy' to 'sell' on Tuesday, there are 'new behavioral challenges': the proliferation of glucagon-like peptide-1 drugs such as Ozempic, they said, could have a 'cumulative' impact on the chain's business, noting 'a 1% drag today could easily build to 10% or more over time.' There's also, according to Morgan Stanley analysts, a threat to McDonald's value proposition to investors: They pointed out on Monday upon their downgrade of the stock that the fast food chain is trading at nearly 25 times this year's earnings estimates. Compare that with Burger King-owner Restaurant Brands, Wendy's and Jack in the Box, which trade at 19, 12, and 4 times earnings estimates, respectively. An ongoing 'value war' among these and other chains, they noted, also means McDonald's 'pricing power has eroded,' reducing its leverage against its bargain-priced competitors. What Others Are Saying: Loop Capital, which downgraded McDonald's on Friday, cited negative feedback about the company's new chicken strips. Other words on the street might not bode well for business either. In April, Pepsico CEO Ramon Laguarta said GLP-1 consumers were 'keeping our brands in their repertoire, probably in a smaller portion,' hinting that food brands might have to cope with less consumptive consumers. Campbell's CEO Mick Beekhuizen said earlier this month that the budget-friendly canned goods company is observing people eating at home the most since the start of the pandemic in 2020. McDonald's shares fell 1.4% on Tuesday, paring this year's gains to 2.7%. Still, if you don't believe in the Cramer curse, CNBC clairvoyant Jim Cramer says the analysts betting against the Golden Arches are wrong. This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive delivering razor sharp analysis and perspective on all things finance, economics, and markets, subscribe to our free The Daily Upside newsletter. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Does This News Make Meta Platforms Stock a Buy?
Meta Platforms is taking steps to improve its advertising process with AI. It could make an already highly profitable business even more so. There are other reasons to buy the stock. 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms › Several years ago, Facebook parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) changed its name, partly to reflect its newfound focus on its metaverse ambitions. Although the company is still working on that project, its initiatives in artificial intelligence (AI) garnered more headlines recently. Meta is looking to transform its business through AI, and recent news suggests it may take a significant step in that direction by the end of 2026. Let's examine these developments and determine whether they make Meta Platforms stock a buy. Meta Platforms makes most of its money from advertising to its massive user base. As of the end of the first quarter, Meta boasted 3.43 billion daily active users across its websites and apps, which include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. However, Meta's ad business could become even better if it could provide more value to advertisers by improving their ad creation and launch processes. It already started to do that with the use of AI-powered tools -- for instance, helping advertisers define their target audience using AI. While businesses typically need to conduct research to figure that out, AI is making the job faster, easier, and cheaper. However, Meta is looking to take the next steps. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, it aims to automate the process with AI from start to finish. Businesses will be able to use the technology at every step of the way -- to create images, tweak them, generate appropriate text, define the target audience, and more. Meta Platforms aims to complete this by the end of next year. What does this mean for investors? If successful, Meta Platforms' new AI tools for ads could reduce advertising expenses for companies while they achieve similar (or perhaps even better) results. If that's the case, demand for Meta's AI-powered tools to post ads across its websites and apps would increase significantly, leading to even more impressive sales. To be clear, Meta's ad business would be a key growth driver anyway. The digital ad market is still growing, and the tech leader's deep ecosystem of users makes it a valuable target for business clients. However, these new initiatives would further enhance this already highly profitable offering. Meanwhile, Meta is also improving engagement thanks to AI. Its algorithms have helped increase the amount of time users spend on Facebook and Instagram, so the company is working on both sides of the commerce equation with AI. These efforts should pay off in the long run, especially considering it has other potential growth drivers. It has been ramping up commercial messaging on WhatsApp, as well as working on the metaverse. Now, Meta Platforms isn't without risk. U.S.-China trade tensions could impact its financial results. During the first quarter, it received less advertising revenue from Asia-based retailers after the Trump administration ended a loophole that allowed some imports from China to enter the U.S. tax-free. Still, despite this headwind, Meta Platforms' first-quarter results were excellent. Revenue increased by 16% year over year to $42.3 billion, while net earnings per share came in at $6.43, 37% higher than the year-ago period. There might be more uncertainty if the trade wars continue, but Meta Platforms is showing that it can perform reasonably well despite that. Some might also point to the company's valuation as a reason to avoid the stock. Meta's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is 27.4 as of this writing, much higher than the average of 19.1 for the communication services industry. But given the Facebook parent's excellent results and strong prospects, it seems worth a premium. In my view, Meta Platforms will more than justify its relatively steep valuation in five years or more, which still makes it a stock worth owning for a long time. Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $660,341!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $874,192!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 999% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 173% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Prosper Junior Bakiny has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Does This News Make Meta Platforms Stock a Buy? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
