SMRs for AI power

Small modular reactors are being pitched as one way to power Southeast Asia’s next wave of artificial-intelligence data centres, especially in fast-growing hubs around Greater Jakarta. (iaea.org, microsoft.com) A small modular reactor is a nuclear plant built in smaller units, generally up to 300 megawatts per reactor, that can be added one module at a time instead of built as one giant station. The International Atomic Energy Agency says that modular design is meant to widen nuclear power’s use for grids, industry and remote sites. (iaea.org, iaea.org) The pitch is simple: data centres need round-the-clock electricity, and the region’s power demand is rising fast. Wood Mackenzie said Southeast Asia’s data-centre load is set to climb from 2.6 gigawatts in 2025 to 10.7 gigawatts in 2035 in its base case, and to 13.7 gigawatts in a higher-demand case. (woodmac.com) Wood Mackenzie said the average proposed data centre in the region now needs 106 megawatts, versus 24 megawatts for existing projects, and forecast annual on-grid power costs rising from $2.6 billion in 2025 to $10.2 billion in 2035. It put 2025 grid power prices for hyperscalers at $178 per megawatt-hour in Singapore and $60 in Indonesia. (woodmac.com) That cost gap helps explain why Indonesia keeps coming up in the discussion. Microsoft said it is building datacenters in the greater Jakarta region, and in May 2025 it opened its first Indonesian cloud region, branded Indonesia Central, as an “AI-ready hyperscale” platform. (microsoft.com, microsoft.com) Private capital is already flowing into AI-heavy sites near Jakarta. In June 2025, Edgnex Data Centers by Damac announced a $2.3 billion AI-focused data centre in Jakarta with a projected capacity of more than 144 megawatts. (datacenterdynamics.com) The appeal of pairing those campuses with dedicated nuclear power is that it could cut reliance on local grids that are cheaper than Singapore’s but less proven for hyperscale reliability. Wood Mackenzie said Singapore remains the regional favourite despite high tariffs because grid reliability is a major concern in other markets. (woodmac.com) Governments in the region are also moving nuclear from theory toward policy. Indonesia’s nuclear regulator, BAPETEN, said in March 2026 that Indonesia, the United States and Japan held a three-day workshop on small modular reactor deployment covering regulation, supply chains, human resources and public engagement. (bapeten.go.id) Indonesia has gone further than most of its neighbours in setting targets, even if no commercial reactor is running yet. State news agency Antara reported in October 2025 that Indonesia aims to operate its first nuclear power plant by 2032, while officials also flagged financing, construction time and public concern over disaster risk as major hurdles. (antaranews.com) Singapore is taking a different route: it is still the region’s largest data-centre market, but it is tightly rationing new capacity. Singapore’s Green Data Centre Roadmap, launched on May 30, 2024, said at least 300 megawatts of additional capacity would be allocated, with a strong focus on energy efficiency, water use and low-carbon power. (rajahtannasia.com) So the near-term story is not that Southeast Asia is about to plug AI servers into new reactors next year. It is that surging data-centre demand, rising power bills and new nuclear planning are pushing investors and policymakers to treat small modular reactors as a serious option for the next buildout cycle. (woodmac.com, bapeten.go.id, iaea.org)