Atlas Atomics has raised roughly $400 million in a Series A round at an approximate $1.9 billion valuation, people familiar with the matter said.
General Catalyst is leading the fundraising and Andreessen Horowitz is participating, the people said, declining to be identified because the information is private. Atlas Atomics, General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment.
Atlas Atomics: funding, leadership and technology
Still in stealth mode, Atlas Atomics is co‑founded and backed by Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and is led by cofounder Kevin Gan. Gan spent more than 15 years investing in energy companies, most recently at hedge fund Millennium and previously at D.E. Shaw & Co. Balendra Sutharshan, a former chief operating officer of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, serves as Atlas Atomics’ chief nuclear officer.
The company is developing an improved heavy water reactor technology that does not rely on enriched uranium and may therefore be cheaper. In a letter to the Utah Governor’s Office of Energy Development, Gan said the goals for that technology are to deliver reliable power, increase production of medical and industrial isotopes, and help support recycling of nuclear fuel.
Nuclear power is experiencing a renewed push in the United States: President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aiming to quadruple U.S. nuclear capacity by 2050, and investors have put about $4.6 billion into U.S. nuclear startups this year. Other recent financings cited by industry figures include Antares Nuclear Inc.’s $470 million raise to advance plans for small reactors to power U.S. military bases and a $1 billion funding round for Valar Atomics Inc. led by Sequoia Capital.
Ramaswamy will face Democrat Amy Acton in next month’s Ohio gubernatorial election. His campaign received $5 million from Elon Musk in the second quarter as the billionaire increased political spending ahead of the midterm contests. Expanding access to and creating new sources of nuclear energy has been a central plank of Ramaswamy’s campaign; last year he released a video describing nuclear energy as “America’s next revolution.”
