Plans by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to build an AI data centre in the US that runs on nuclear power were thwarted in part because a rare species of bee was discovered on land earmarked for the project, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta saw plans for a new AI data center fall through in part because a rare species of bee was found on land where the data center would be built, according to a report. Sources told the Financial Times that Zuckerberg was hoping to reach a deal with a nuclear power plant operator to provide electricity for the proposed data center,

Meta has faced a setback in its plan to build data centers run on nuclear power. The FT reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff last week that the land it was planning to build a new data center on was discovered to be the home of a rare bee species,