Sequoia Capital led a $1 billion Series B for El Segundo–based Valar Atomics Inc., valuing the company at $6 billion including the new investment, according to a statement Monday. Valar has also lined up a $200-million credit facility.
Atreides Management, Point72 and Snowpoint Ventures also participated in the financing, and Shaun Maguire, a Sequoia partner, will join Valar’s board, the statement said.
Valar Atomics plans factory production
Valar is developing next-generation small modular reactors designed to be produced in factories and delivered to power data centers, industrial sites and other facilities. The company says the factory approach aims to reduce costs and speed deployment in an industry often marked by budget overruns and delays; there are currently no comparable reactors in service outside China and Russia.
“AI is building very quickly. We need a lot of power in every direction,” Isaiah Taylor, Valar’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. “This is really about scale for us. This is the firepower that we need to go and build.”
Valar is one of four companies that reached a key technical milestone this year for new reactors by starting a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction that produces a steady stream of energy. In July, Valar used that fission reaction to generate enough electricity to power an Nvidia Corp. AI chip and host a website; the two companies are now planning a 30-megawatt AI facility in Utah powered by Valar systems.
The new funding is expected to accelerate Valar’s manufacturing plans. “We want to prove pace of production,” Taylor said. “We want to go from building one reactor in a year, to six months, to once a month and then even faster.”
A Valar Atomics microreactor was photographed aboard a C-17 aircraft at March Air Reserve Base.
