Valar Atomics Secures $1B in Funding to Bring Nuclear Power to AI Data Centers

Nuclear startup Valar Atomics raised $1 billion in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital, valuing the company at $6 billion.

This milestone follows a June achievement where a privately built reactor generated electricity and sent it to an Nvidia AI chip on the first attempt outside a national laboratory.

The funds will be used to move from one demonstration reactor in Utah to manufactured machines that can power AI data centers at commercial scale, a transition every US nuclear startup has stalled at.

Valar's Ward 250 high-temperature gas reactor achieved self-sustaining nuclear criticality and successfully supplied power to an Nvidia DGX Spark AI chip during a live demonstration in July. The reactor runs on helium instead of water, eliminating the risk of meltdown.