Nuclear Fission Shows Continuing Popularity (With VCs, At Least)

At first glance, nuclear fission power doesn’t seem like the most obvious area for U.S. venture capital to cluster.

After all, the last big boom for building American nuclear power plants was in the 1970s. Not long after that, environmental and safety concerns, project cost and broader availability of other affordable power options, among other factors, effectively brought new installations to a halt.

In VC portfolios and IPO pipelines, however, nuclear has been making a comeback.

So far this year, investors have poured close to $2 billion into an assortment of companies across stages working on nuclear power offerings outside of the fusion space 1聽curated using 附近上门 data. The funding influx coincides with public market offerings activity as well.

Notable funding recipients

For a sense of who鈥檚 getting funded, we put together a list of 16 good-sized rounds that closed this year for nuclear-focused startups.

The largest round is also one of the most recent: a in late November for , a developer of advanced nuclear reactor and fuel technology. led the financing for the Rockville, Maryland-based company, which is looking to build small modular reactors.

For X-energy, it helps that the 16-year-old company has attracted some high-profile partners. Currently, it聽 has projects mapped out with Dow Energy and . The startup says it plans to use some Series D funds toward beefing up its supply chain

, one of the most recognized names among nuclear startups, also landed a huge follow-on financing this year. The -founded startup $650 million in fresh funding this summer, with 鈥檚 as a backer.

The Bellevue, Washington-based company touts its Natrium technology, which it describes as an advanced nuclear reactor paired with gigawatt-scale energy storage. It began preparatory construction activities on the site of the 铿乺st plant last year and says it expects regulatory approval for the nuclear reactor next year.

We鈥檙e also seeing early-stage activity. Just this month, , a 2-year-old startup focused on building compact nuclear microreactors for remote locations, that it closed on a $96 million Series B round.

, founded in 2023, has also been a fast serial fundraiser. The El Segundo, California, company, focused on building nuclear reactors for grid-independent projects, $130 million a month ago in a Series A led by , and and joined by backers including founder .

Valar is also known for being one of the parties the over the licensing process for small reactor designs.

Exits too

Interestingly, nuclear is also an area where we are seeing both planned and actualized public-market debuts.

In the actualized category, the standout is , which develops nuclear reactors and went public last year through a merger with a SPAC launched by . It鈥檚 a pre-revenue company and had a recent market cap around $16 billion.

It鈥檚 a pretty big-number outcome, which might help explain why other SPAC deals have also popped up:

, which wants to develop energy parks with small modular reactors to meet data center demand, announced in October to go public through a merger with the blank-check acquirer Hennessy Capital Investment Corp VII.
, a developer of light-water micro-modular reactors, announced in September to go public through a merger with a SPAC, GigCapital7 Corp., in a $1.2 billion deal.
, a developer of small modular nuclear plants, completed a SPAC merger in October and trades on the under the ticker symbol IMSR.

The 鈥�70s boom, redux?

For those putting their money behind expectations of a nuclear power development renaissance, it helps that the political winds are turning in their direction. In May, signed of nuclear power in the next 25 years. The act aims to speed up approvals of new projects.

These won鈥檛 mimic 1970s installations in form or purpose. They’ll likely be smaller, not always grid-connected, and conceived with an eye toward feeding the power demands of artificial intelligence. However, the hope among investors is that in terms of the quantity of power generated and new installations built, we will enter another boom era.

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