Valar Atomics, a US-based nuclear startup building small modular reactors, said on August 3 that it raised US$1 billion in equity, led by Sequoia, and secured a US$200 million credit line from Erebor and other banks to support its next manufacturing milestone.

Shaun Maguire, a Sequoia partner, joined Valar’s board. The round reportedly valued Valar at US$6 billion, though the company did not disclose a valuation.

Founder and chief executive Isaiah Taylor said Ward 250 is a Generation IV TRISO-fueled, helium-cooled, high-temperature gas reactor rated at 100 kWt in its test configuration and scalable to 5 MWe.

Ward 250 reached criticality in Utah under a US Department of Energy (DOE) pilot program that uses DOE authorization rather than a traditional Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) commercial licensing process. The reviewed sources do not mention NRC permit filings.

Valar said it powered an Nvidia Blackwell system in June. The Nvidia arrangement has been described as a partnership to develop a small Utah data center and explore waterless power for AI, with no offtake or other commercial terms disclosed.

The financing is larger than recent private nuclear rounds, including TerraPower’s US$650 million series C and X-energy’s US$700 million series C-1.

🔗 Source: TechCrunch