Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta saw plans for a new AI data center fall through in part because a rare species of bee was found on land where the data center would be built, according to a report. Sources told the Financial Times that Zuckerberg was hoping to reach a deal with a nuclear power plant operator to provide electricity for the proposed data center, but the deal was hit with a series of complications, including regulatory environmental challenges. At a Meta all-hands meeting last week, Zuckerberg said a rare bee species discovery on land next to a power plant where the data center would have been constructed would have added complications for the project, according to the report. Several tech giants including Google and Amazon have recently inked deals with nuclear power plant operators to provide the vast amounts of electricity required for the development and use of AI models. Microsoft announced in September that it would aim to meet some of its AI energy needs using a reactor at the Three Mile Island plant—the site of the worst nuclear accident in American history.
