We often jokingly refer to NVIDIA’s flagship graphics cards as “tactical nukes,” but it seems Jensen Huang (NVIDIA’s CEO) is truly venturing into the nuclear energy sector!
NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, NVenture, has participated in a $650 million funding round for TerraPower, alongside Bill Gates and Hyundai Motor Group. TerraPower is a nuclear energy innovation company founded by Bill Gates in 2006, dedicated to developing small modular reactors (SMRs), aiming for the standardization, miniaturization, and scaled application of nuclear energy.
Currently, TerraPower is developing a 345-megawatt nuclear power plant in Wyoming, USA, using liquid sodium for cooling and molten salt to store 1 gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) of surplus generated heat for later use. It’s also part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program,” which aims to promote the reliable development of next-generation clean energy. Construction of the non-nuclear parts of the power plant has already begun, with the nuclear power generation section expected to be approved in 2026 and operational by 2030.
The Energy Demands of AI: A Growing Concern #
With the rapid development of AI GPU accelerator cards and AI data centers, energy consumption is surging at an unprecedented rate. A single card can require thousands of watts of power, meaning a future data center might need its own dedicated power plant. AMD has revealed that a single exascale supercomputer requires a massive 500 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to the power consumption of 375,000 households.
Current AMD MI350 series cards consume 1000W with air cooling and 1400W with liquid cooling, while NVIDIA’s B300 also reaches 1400W.
Looking ahead, the next-next-generation NVIDIA AI GPU, codenamed “Feyman,” is expected to arrive in 2029. It’s estimated to have a core die area of around 750 square millimeters, with the chip consuming approximately 900W. With a four-chip integrated package, an interposer area of about 4800 square millimeters, and 8 HBM5 stacks providing 48TB/s bandwidth, the total card power consumption could reach 4400W.
Future Predictions: Escalating Power and Nuclear Solutions #
The codenames for subsequent generations haven’t been released, and the following data is purely speculative:
Beyond Feyman (2032): The next generation is predicted to shrink the single-chip area to 700 square millimeters but break the 1000W barrier for power consumption. With a four-chip integrated package, an interposer exceeding 6000 square millimeters, and as many as 16 HBM6 stacks delivering 256TB/s bandwidth, the total card power consumption could be close to 6000W.
Even Further (2035): Another new generation is envisioned, with the single-chip area further reduced to 600 square millimeters, but power consumption reaching 1200W. This generation might feature an eight-chip integrated package for the first time, an interposer exceeding 9000 square millimeters, and 32 HBM7 stacks providing a staggering 1TB/s bandwidth, leading to an incredible 15,000W of total power consumption! Is this path sustainable? It suggests that every data center will need to be paired with its own nuclear power plant! NVIDIA’s investment in a nuclear energy company is clearly a preparation for future development.
Other Tech Giants Also Eyeing Nuclear Power #
In fact, NVIDIA isn’t the first tech company to take such steps:
Oracle has obtained licenses to build three small modular nuclear reactors to provide 1 gigawatt of power for its AI data centers.
Microsoft plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, which was shut down in 1979 due to a major nuclear leak, and has signed a 20-year power supply agreement with Constellation Energy, the largest clean energy provider in the US.
Google, in collaboration with Kairos, is deploying seven small modular nuclear reactors.
Amazon has invested in two energy companies involved in the nuclear reactor sector.
Meta has also begun considering nuclear power for its operations.
A Note on Gaming GPUs: Zotac Addresses Black Screen Issue
However, it’s genuinely suggested that while NVIDIA develops these “nuclear” solutions, it also pays more attention to the quality of its gaming cards. For instance, the black screen issue with the current generation of RTX 50 series cards has been quite frustrating.
Today, Zotac released a new BIOS update for its RTX 5060 Ti series graphics cards to address the black screen problem. According to Zotac, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB/8GB cards might experience black screens after system restarts, especially when paired with older motherboards. However, Zotac did not specify which motherboards are affected but emphasized that if you haven’t encountered the black screen issue, there’s no need to update the BIOS. Additionally, if your motherboard supports UEFI, first ensure the boot mode is switched from Legacy/CSM to UEFI, which might resolve the black screen without needing a BIOS flash.
The update method is very simple: just download the BIOS file from the corresponding product page on Zotac’s official website, extract it, and run the .exe file, following the prompts. It’s worth noting that NVIDIA officially released a BIOS fix for black screens in late March, as well as multiple versions of new drivers, which can also be tried.
