Meta signs deal with Overview Energy for up to 1 gigawatt of space-based solar power to supply AI data centers, though the technology does not yet exist.

Meta Platforms has signed a deal with startup Overview Energy for up to 1 gigawatt of solar power collected in space and beamed to Earth. Overview Energy, based in northern Virginia, plans to capture sunlight with satellites in low Earth orbit, convert it to electricity, and transmit it to ground receivers.

Space-based solar offers an advantage over conventional solar farms: in orbit, the sun never sets, and weather, time of day, and seasons do not affect power generation. Meta's head of energy and sustainability, Nat Sahlstrom, describes the energy as clean and "uninterrupted."

Overview Energy's technology remains entirely hypothetical. The startup is developing and testing its components, with a first orbital demonstration planned for 2028 and commercial power deliveries not expected to begin until 2030. Meta gets priority access to Overview Energy's future capacity.

The deal is part of Meta's massive spending push into energy and infrastructure for AI ambitions. Meta has also backed construction of ten new gas-fired power plants for its largest AI data center campus in rural Louisiana and invested billions in nuclear power, including small modular reactors.