- The United States, Japan, and South Korea signed an agreement to accelerate small modular reactor deployment in the Indo-Pacific region.
- The State Department committed over $10 million to the FIRST program for project development and training.
- Data center electricity demand is soaring, with UN warnings they could soon use more power than all but five nations.
- Critics link the SMR pact to WEF and Tony Blair Institute proposals for digital embassies that could lead to foreign digital control.
- South Korean firms like Doosan and SK Group are positioned to profit, even as U.S. taxpayers help fund the overseas buildout.
The United States, Japan, and South Korea signed a memorandum of cooperation on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, to accelerate the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) in other countries, beginning with the Indo-Pacific region. The U.S. State Department committed more than $10 million through its Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology program, known as FIRST, to advance project development and establish a regional training hub. The announcement made no mention of powering artificial intelligence data centers, despite the Indo-Pacific being home to rapid data center expansion in nations like Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and China, which dominates the region with roughly 450 facilities.
A deal framed as energy diplomacy, not AI infrastructure
The State Department described the memorandum as a way to "foster fleet deployment models that de-risk project development, achieve economies of scale, catalyze private investment, streamline licensing processes, and optimize supply chains." U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN Kevin Kim told reporters the partnership reflects "tight strategic cooperation" among the three countries on energy security, adding that "the SMRs will play a critical role in supplying energy in the future."
The FIRST program itself traces back to the Biden administration's 2021 Leaders' Summit on Climate. Notably, neither the agreement nor the program's stated goals reference data centers at all — an omission that stands out given how much of the region's energy demand is now driven by AI infrastructure buildout.
Data centers' soaring power needs help explain the nuclear push
That omission is notable given how much power data centers consume. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned at the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance that "data centers already consume more electricity than most countries" and "by 2030, they could use more electricity than all but five nations."
SMRs generate between 50MW and 300MW, according to the Idaho National Laboratory, which lists data centers among their potential uses alongside grid reliability and desalination. At a WEF gathering in Riyadh, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said wind and solar alone aren't going to cut it, noting data centers now being planned "that are going to be one gigawatt — that powers a city." Axiom Space's Kam Ghaffarian, at the same event, argued nuclear was the only real answer.
Critics tie the pact to WEF's "digital embassy" concept
Some observers note the memorandum's language about "complementary advantages" and shared infrastructure echoes a separate WEF and Tony Blair Institute proposal called "digital embassies" — arrangements letting one country host another's data and computing needs on its own soil. The Tony Blair Institute describes this as infrastructure that lets states "preserve, restore or operate critical digital functions... beyond their territory," while WEF's Cathy Li has argued not every nation should build its own AI infrastructure. No official document connects the SMR agreement to this concept; the link is speculative, drawn by critics wary of foreign-built data infrastructure quietly becoming a backdoor for outside control over a country's digital systems, from IDs to payments.
South Korean firms line up for a share of the business
South Korean nuclear manufacturers are already positioning themselves to profit. Doosan Enerbility, the country's largest nuclear equipment maker, works with U.S. developers TerraPower, NuScale, and X-energy, and is putting roughly $542 million into new production capacity in Changwon by 2028. SK Group holds a $250 million stake in TerraPower, while HD Hyundai is building floating and ship-based nuclear power projects. One industry official cautioned the memorandum "does not guarantee any actual orders or investment."
For American taxpayers, the $10 million commitment might be relatively modest, but it's part of a broader pattern of Washington bankrolling energy and infrastructure projects overseas while domestic grid and manufacturing needs go underfunded at home. Whether these reactors end up quietly powering foreign-controlled data hubs remains to be seen. But the lack of transparency about their ultimate purpose is reason enough for the public to keep asking questions.
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