Artificial intelligence caused that the demand for electricity increased rapidly in the US after years of virtually zero growth. This has sent large technology firms that attempt to secure the generation capability for their data centers.
For many, this meant turning to the nuclear fission. The power source has experienced revival in the last few years after a long time of closing of plants. (Fission, used in all current nuclear plants, differs from fusion, still an experimental approach to obtaining power from atoms, which, by attracting investors, must still produce more electricity than it consumes).
In the case of technology firms, a stable, predictable source of power that flows 24/7 is a stable, predictable source of power, which supplies their data centers the potential for launching computing loads at any time.
But the next a part of the appeal is about recent reactor projects that promise to beat the shortcomings of existing nuclear power plants. Where old power plants were built around massive reactors that might generate over 1 gigawat of electricity, recent designs of a small modular reactor (SMR) see many modules placed side by side to fulfill a variety of needs.
SMRS rely on mass production to cut back costs, but so far no one has built one in the USA that didn’t keep Amazon, Google, Meta I Microsoft Away from the table. Either they signed energy purchase agreements from nuclear startups or invested in them directly – or each.
Here are nuclear fission startups supported by Big Tech.
Power Cairos
Power Cairos He received a vote of trust from Google, when the search giant promised to purchase about 500 megawatt electricity by 2035, and the first reactor directed to the Internet by 2030.
Small modular reactors of the company are based on melted fluoride salt for cooling and heat transport to the steam turbine. The high boiling point of salt signifies that the coolant does not have to be kept under high pressure, which should improve operational safety. The reactors contain fuel pebbles covered with carbon and ceramic shells, which ought to be strong enough to resist the crash.
He received a startup from Alamed $ 629 million Award from the US government, including $ 303 million from the Energy Department. In November 2024, Kairos received approval by the American Nuclear Regulatory Commission to start out the construction of two reactors in Tennessee. With 35 megawatts, test units shall be smaller than the final business reactors of Cairos, which are to generate 75 megawatts each.
Ok hey
Ok hey It is one other SMR company addressed to the world of the data center – there is no surprise, taking into account that he was supported by the general director of OPENAI, Altman himself, who also undertook a nuclear audience through the reverse connection with the vehicle of the purchase of a special purpose, Altc, in July 2023, Altman was the chairman from Oklo for energy supply. DCVC, Draper Associates and Peter Thiel Mithril Capital Management belong to previous startup investors.
The Oklo reactor, cooled with liquid metal, is based on the existing American Department of Energy Design, which goals to cut back the amount of nuclear waste resulting from regular operations. Still, the Oklo path was not smooth. Business The first application for a license It was refused in January 2022. Oklo said that he again sends the application in 2025. But this didn’t stop the company from landing the contract to deliver the data center operator switch with 12 gigawatts until 2044.
Saltfoss
Like Cairos, SaltfossEarlier often called Seaborg, he also desires to build SMR cooled by molten salt. But unlike Kairos and others, it provides for placing from two to eight of them on a ship to create the so -called energy barge. The startup collected almost $ 60 million, including a seed round of $ 6 million, which included investments from Bill Gates, Peter Thiel and co -founder Unity David Helgason, in response to PitchBook. Satlfoss has an agreement with Samsung Heavy Industries to build ships and reactors designed by Satlfoss.
Terrapower
Founded by Bill Gates, Terrapower He builds a larger reactor, called Natrium, who is cooled with liquid sodium and has melted salt energy.
The company crashed at the first power plant in June 2024 in Wyoming. The Natrium project requires a reactor to generate 345 megawatts of electricity. It is smaller than other recent nuclear plants, but larger than most SMR projects.
But Natrium has a trick with a melted salt heat storage system. Because nuclear reactors work best in a fixed state, the Natrium reactor can proceed to interrupt up atoms when the demand is low and additional energy is stored as heat in VAT with molten salt, which will be pulled out later to generate electricity.
Investors include Gates’ Cascade Investment Fund, Khosla Ventures, CRV and ArcelorMittal.
X-Energy
X-Energy Last yr, a high $ 700 million C-1 series landed by Amazon Climate Pledge Fund. At the same time, the SMR startup announced two development agreements in which the distribution of 300 megawatts of latest nuclear generation power in north -west and Virginia Pacific.
High temperature, gas -cooled reactors of the company fight the latest trends in the USA and Europe, where the project was rejected in favor of other approaches. The company’s XE-100 reactor is expected to generate 80 megawatt electricity. Hel gas flows through the “pebbles” fuel with a billiard reactor size of billiards, absorbing heat to spin the steam turbine.