Oracle agrees to buy 10–20% of Wisconsin's Point Beach nuclear output for Project Lighthouse, its data-center campus with OpenAI
On Oct 2, 2026 We Energies announced an agreement letting Oracle "subscribe" to 10–20% of the electricity from the Point Beach Nuclear Plant (reported as about 125–250 MW) for Project Lighthouse, the Port Washington, Wisconsin data-center campus Oracle is co-developing with OpenAI. The utility says it would save other customers about $300 million in fuel costs; the deal needs approval from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.
Key facts
- Announced Oct 2, 2026 by We Energies; Oracle subscribes to 10–20% of Point Beach output (Civic Media); The Daily Reporter reports 125–250 MW
- Expected customer savings: about $300 million in fuel costs (We Energies), between 2027 and 2033 per press reports
- Point Beach (Manitowoc County) is Wisconsin's only operating nuclear plant, owned by NextEra since 2007; We Energies buys most of its output under an agreement expiring in 2033 and has committed to ~86% of output through 2053
- We Energies: 'Oracle will fully fund Project Lighthouse's energy costs to protect ratepayers' electricity bills and support grid reliability'
- Project Lighthouse: Port Washington (Ozaukee County) campus co-developed with OpenAI; We Energies cites $11B+ economic impact, 4,000+ construction jobs over three years and 1,000 operations jobs; press reports a $15B campus
- Requires Wisconsin PSC approval; the same day We Energies filed for a new gas plant at the Fox Energy Center
What happened
Instead of a new reactor, Oracle takes a share of an existing plant's increasingly expensive output, which We Energies is contractually obliged to buy from NextEra. The utility frames this as a ratepayer benefit: the data center absorbs costs other customers would otherwise pay.
Why it matters
Data-center power costs became a political issue in 2026. This deal is a template for labs and cloud providers paying for grid power in ways that can be presented as lowering household bills, and it ties an OpenAI-linked campus to nuclear power.
Changelog
- 2026-10-03: created
Related events
Sources (4)
- officialWe Energies: agreement with Oracle expected to save customers approximately $300 million
- pressCivic Media: We Energies strikes deal to power Oracle data center with nuclear energy
- pressThe Daily Reporter: Oracle plans to buy nuclear power for its data center in Wisconsin
- pressBizTimes: User of Port Washington data center commits to absorb $300 million in rising costs for Point Beach
id: 2026-10-02-oracle-point-beach-nuclear-project-lighthouse · updated 2026-10-03 · open in the interactive timeline