Meta has signed an agreement with energy startup Overview Energy in a move that signals an ambitious push to secure round-the-clock electricity supply for artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to people familiar with the arrangement.

The deal could see as many as 1,000 satellites deployed to transmit infrared light to solar farms, enabling them to continue generating power at night.

The concept is designed to support energy-intensive data centers, particularly as demand for AI computing capacity continues to surge.

In 2024, Meta’s data centers consumed more than 18,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity, an amount comparable to the annual power use of over 1.7 million U.S. homes.

That figure is expected to rise as the company expands its AI operations.

To meet this growing demand, Meta has pledged to develop around 30 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, with a strong emphasis on large-scale solar installations.

Traditionally, data centers that rely on solar energy must either deploy battery storage systems or depend on alternative power sources to maintain operations after sunset.
However, Overview Energy—a four-year-old startup based in Ashburn, Virginia, which came out of stealth in December—is pursuing a different approach.

The company is developing spacecraft designed to harvest abundant solar energy in space, where sunlight is continuous and unobstructed.

It then plans to convert that captured energy into near-infrared light and transmit it to large-scale solar farms on Earth, potentially at the scale of hundreds of megawatts.

These solar installations would in turn convert the incoming light into usable electricity, offering a continuous power supply without the limitations of nighttime solar downtime.

The technology could significantly improve the return on investment for solar farm developers while also reducing dependence on fossil fuels, provided it can be successfully deployed at scale.