Alphabet Bets Big on Nuclear Power While Legal Battles Mount on Two Fronts

Alphabet locks in up to 3,590 MW on PJM via Constellation, including a 20-year nuclear PPA, as DOJ remedies and publisher claims mount.

Alphabet is locking down the electricity that will keep its data centers humming for decades to come. The tech giant unveiled a sweeping agreement with Constellation Energy covering up to 3,590 megawatts of capacity on the PJM grid in the United States — a deal that underscores just how voracious the company's computing appetite has become.

At the heart of the arrangement sits a 20-year power purchase agreement for 890 megawatts of additional nuclear capacity. To deliver that output, Constellation will upgrade eleven existing reactors across Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, spending more than USD 4.3 billion on physical and digital improvements at six plant sites. The first extra electricity from those upgrades is expected to flow in 2028, with full completion targeted by the end of 2032. According to the companies, roughly 4,400 jobs will be preserved and some 7,200 construction positions created along the way.

A separate 15-year contract adds another 2,700 megawatts drawn from Constellation's existing fleet. The utility will also fold Google's Gemini Enterprise model into its own operations. Alphabet had already lined up partnerships with NextEra — aimed at restarting the Duane Arnold reactor in Iowa — and with Southern, all part of an effort to feed its expanding data center footprint.

The urgency is hard to miss. Google's electricity consumption jumped 37 percent in 2025 alone. Its cloud division, which posted USD 24.8 billion in revenue and USD 8.8 billion in operating profit in the second quarter of 2026, depends on reliable power as a critical bottleneck. The cloud backlog recently stood at roughly USD 514 billion, and working through that pipeline will require substantially more capacity. Capital expenditure across the leading cloud providers has been climbing sharply, weighing on near-term cash flow.

A Courtroom Tug-of-War Over Advertising

While Alphabet shores up its energy supply, its legal troubles are far from resolved. Just over three weeks after a US court declined to break up Google's advertising business, the fight with competition authorities has shifted to the fine print of enforcement.

Both the US Department of Justice and the company submitted competing drafts for the final judgment to Judge Leonie Brinkema. The dispute centers on deadlines, international transition periods and the powers of independent monitors tasked with overseeing the behavioral remedies.

The two sides agree on the broad strokes: separate contracts for AdX and DFP, integration of rival ad servers, and data export options within three months. The timetable, however, is another matter. The DOJ wants Google to open its technical interfaces within six months; the company is asking for twelve. Alphabet also seeks a transition period of up to 24 months for the global rollout, while the Justice Department insists on worldwide applicability from day one after a planned 60-day ramp-up phase.

Sharp differences also emerge over the six-year monitoring regime — specifically who picks the compliance monitor and what access that person gets. The government side demands data access within 14 days and a short 15-day window for Google to object, whereas the company wants 30 days. Alphabet's draft additionally omits provisions for penalties in cases of misconduct, which the Justice Department considers essential. Beyond the Virginia proceeding, both parties are simultaneously pressing the Washington appeals court for an expedited hearing on search market remedies, ideally beginning in December.

Publisher Claims and Shareholder Suits Pile Up

The legal exposure carries a hefty price tag. In a separate case in New York state, Judge P. Kevin Castel ruled that roughly 5,000 publishers can pursue damages exceeding USD 1.7 billion before a possible tripling under US antitrust law. Combined with individual claims from media outlets such as the Daily Mail and USA Today, potential liabilities top USD 3.2 billion.

Investor resistance is building as well. Shareholders filed a class action against Alphabet at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that management misled them about the development status of the Gemini 3.5 Pro AI model. The release was scrapped after delays and training problems in favor of a newer model generation, and the plaintiffs claim leadership painted a misleading picture of actual progress.

Market Reaction Muted as Gemini 4 Argon Arrives

Against this legal backdrop, the stock has taken a measured path. Alphabet shares closed Monday at EUR 308.85, up 1.2 percent, though they traded nearly flat at EUR 309.00 with a gain of 0.05 percent in a subsequent session. The 52-week high of EUR 350.75 remains 12 percent away. Year to date, the stock is up 16 percent, but the challenge of converting massive upfront investments into durable profit growth looms large.

On the product side, Google introduced the Gemini 4 Argon model in late September, initially available to select partners for cyber defense tasks. The company continues to push model development forward even as it navigates the legal and financial pressures mounting on multiple fronts.