Sequoia's Shaun Maguire Leads $1B Round for Nuclear Startup Valar Atomics

Valar Atomics confirmed Monday that it has raised $1 billion in equity financing, led by Sequoia Capital, in a round that values the nuclear startup at $6 billion, according to Bloomberg. Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire will join the company's board of directors. The company also secured a $200 million line of credit from Erebor and other banks. Founder and CEO Isaiah Taylor announced the milestone in a blog post, noting that the funds will accelerate production of its small modular reactors (SMRs) — factory-built, miniaturized power plants designed to be cheaper and faster to deploy than traditional nuclear reactors. Valar has been gaining traction in the race to power AI infrastructure. In June, the company demonstrated its Ward 250 reactor successfully powering an Nvidia Blackwell system, and announced a partnership with Nvidia to develop a waterless 30MW AI factory. Valar says each reactor generates engineering, manufacturing, and operational data that feeds into next-generation designs, shrinking development cycles. "It took two years to complete the NOVA core. It took seven months to take Ward 250 critical. With each reactor built, the tick rate will become smaller until Valar is producing tens, then hundreds, then thousands of reactors per year," wrote Taylor. The new funding will support the company's next milestone: manufacturing fleets of SMRs. Valar is not alone in this space. Other nuclear startups are attracting significant capital as demand for clean, reliable power for data centers surges. Antares raised $470 million in July, and X-energy raised $1 billion through an IPO in April. Participants in Valar's Series B include Apandion Capital, Atreides Management, Conviction, Dream Ventures, HOF Capital, Point72 Ventures, Riot Ventures, Snowpoint Ventures, and Valor Equity Partners.

via TechCrunch