Meta’s ( META) plan to join the tech race for nuclear power has reportedly been foiled by bees.

Meta had to pull the plug on a nuclear-powered data center project after a rare bee species was discovered on the land where it was going to be built, according to the Financial Times.

Meta is said to have been negotiating a deal with the operator of an existing nuclear power plant for emissions-free electricity to sustain a new AI-focused datacenter. But according to two sources cited in the report, environmental and regulatory hurdles stymied the deal.

A potential nuclear power supply deal for a Meta artificial intelligence (AI) data center was obstructed by the discovery of a rare species of bee on the land where the project was planned.

Plans by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to build an AI data center 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.

According to reports, the deal with the energy providers had a series of other hurdles and environmental regulations.

Meta's plans to set up a nuclear-powered AI data center in the US have been halted in part because a rare bee species was found on the land, the Financial Times reports. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff about the issue in an all-hands meeting,