# Talen Energy Independent power producer headquartered in Houston, TX, traded on NASDAQ under ticker TLN. Talen emerged from bankruptcy on May 17, 2023, under CEO Mac McFarland, with ownership transferred to a consortium of its former unsecured creditors. The company's signature asset is the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, a 2,532 MW two-unit nuclear plant in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania — and the deal Talen struck to co-locate an [[Amazon]] Web Services data center campus next to it set the market precedent for every nuclear-AI power arrangement that followed. ## The Susquehanna-Amazon Deal Talen sold its co-located data center campus adjacent to Susquehanna to [[Amazon]]/AWS for approximately $650M. The transaction was the proof of concept that nuclear plants could directly power AI data centers through a "behind-the-meter" arrangement, where the data center drew power from the reactor before it hit the public grid. Every subsequent nuclear-AI deal — [[Constellation Energy]]/Microsoft at Three Mile Island, Vistra/[[Meta]] at Perry and Davis-Besse — followed the template Talen pioneered. ## Expanded Amazon PPA In June 2025, Talen signed a dramatically expanded power purchase agreement with [[Amazon]], providing up to 1,920 MW of carbon-free nuclear power through 2042 from Susquehanna. Unlike the original behind-the-meter setup, this is a "front-of-the-meter" arrangement delivering power through the PJM grid, which the companies transitioned to in spring 2026. Full delivery is expected by 2032. The two companies are also exploring building small modular reactors within Talen's Pennsylvania footprint and pursuing nuclear uprates to add net-new generation to the grid. ## Other Generation Assets Beyond Susquehanna, Talen operates a portfolio of natural gas and coal generation assets. The company's strategic focus, however, has shifted decisively toward monetizing its nuclear capacity for AI and cloud workloads. ## KB Relevance Talen's Susquehanna-to-[[Amazon]] deal was the original proof of concept for the nuclear-AI power model. It demonstrated that co-locating data centers at nuclear plants was commercially viable, triggering a land rush among power generators and tech companies alike. The deal — and the regulatory controversy it sparked over grid reliability and behind-the-meter arrangements — is foundational context for [[The Quest for 90 Gigawatts]] and the broader AI infrastructure buildout the vault tracks. ## See Also - [[Amazon]] - [[Constellation Energy]] - [[The Quest for 90 Gigawatts]] - [[Energy Sector]]