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TerraPower raises $650 million from backers including Nvidia
TerraPower LLC, a nuclear startup founded by billionaire Bill Gates, raised $650 million to help continue development of an advanced reactor project under construction in Wyoming.
The funding round included new investors such as NVentures, the venture capital arm of Nvidia Corp., and existing backers Gates and HD Hyundai, a South Korean shipbuilder, according to a statement Wednesday.
Nvidia's decision to support the company reflects the growing links between the technology industry, which is clamoring for carbon-free electricity to power data centers and artificial intelligence, and nuclear companies that are pushing to build reactors that can deliver clean electricity around the clock.
'As AI continues to transform industries, nuclear energy is going to become a more vital energy source to help power these capabilities,' Mohamed Siddeek, head of NVentures, said in the statement.
TerraPower is developing a 345-megawatt power plant at a Wyoming coal plant that's set to retire. It began construction a year ago on non-nuclear parts of the project, and expects to receive federal approval in 2026 for the reactor.
The company did not disclose its valuation or other terms of the fundraise on Wednesday.
Interest in nuclear power, seen as a cleaner and more reliable alternative to wind and solar, has surged after a decade of stagnation, supported by rising demand from data centers tapping into the artificial intelligence boom.
In 2022, TerraPower had delayed Natrium's launch date by at least two years to 2030, due to a lack of special fuel called high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU.
In October last year, TerraPower and ASP Isotopes reached an agreement to produce HALEU at an undisclosed site.
A developer of small nuclear reactors is going public via a special purpose acquisition company led by former Cantor Fitzgerald Chief Executive Officer Shawn Matthews.
Terrestrial Energy Inc. has an equity value of $925 million in the deal with blank-check firm HCM II Acquisition Corp., with the combined entity valued at about $1 billion including debt, according to a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News.
The transaction will provide Terrestrial with $280 million in gross proceeds, including the $230 million from the blank-check trust account and an additional $50 million from a private investment in public equity, or PIPE, at $10 a share to help commercialize its molten salt nuclear reactors, the companies said in the statement.
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Terrestrial joins a band of SPAC-funded contenders betting they can make small modular nuclear power more than a quixotic vision of safely splitting atoms to shrink carbon emissions and sate AI's voracious appetite for energy. That group includes Sam Altman-backed Oklo Inc., Ares-backed X-Energy and Fluor Corp.-backed NuScale Power. Startups like TerraPower LLC, founded by Bill Gates, have also joined the fray.
