California-based nuclear start-up Valar Atomics has raised $130m in its latest funding round bringing its total fundraising to $150m. The funding round was backed by Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey and Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, the company said. The fundraising was led by venture capital firms Snowpoint Ventures, Day One Ventures and Dream Ventures. Also taking part were Lockheed Martin board member and former AT&T executive John Donovan.
Valar Atomics, founded in 2023, raised $19m in a seed funding round to develop its first test reactor when it emerged from stealth in February. It has an initial contract with the Philippines Nuclear Research Institute under which it plans to pilot a test-scale reactor and build two full-scale reactors before the first integrated reactor comes online. Valar’s board of directors is being joined by Doug Philippone, co-founder of Snowpoint and former head of global defence at military surveillance and intelligence company Palantir.
Valar was one of 11 companies selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for its Reactor Pilot Program, which aims to achieve criticality for three reactors by 4th July 2026. Valar was also one of four companies selected by DOE in September to take part if its Fuel Line Pilot Program which leverages the DOE authorisation process to build and operate nuclear fuel production lines for research, development, and demonstration purposes and to provide a fast-tracked approach to commercial licensing. The Fuel Line Pilot Program supports the Reactor Pilot Program and establishes a domestic nuclear fuel supply chain for testing new reactors.
Valar is developing the Ward 250, a high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) design that uses TRISO fuel, helium coolant and graphite moderators. It aims to build America’s first nuclear gigasites – clusters of thousands of HTGRs designed to produce industrial power and carbon-based fuels cheaper than oil. In September Valar began ground-breaking for a test reactor at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (USREL), part of the Utah Office of Energy Development (OED). Valar founder & CEO Isaiah Taylor indicated on X that the Ward 250 will be a 100-kWt reactor.
According to Valar’s website, the plan is to create one standardised Ward reactor design to be manufactured at scale and deployed by the hundreds at a behind-the-meter “gigasite.” Valar is tailoring these plans toward hydrogen production, data centres, and synthetic fuel production.
Taylor, whose grandfather was a nuclear physicist on the Manhattan Project, dropped out of high school at 16. He taught himself coding years and built a body of work through freelance jobs and side projects. Eventually, one of his contacts recommended him for a position building classified technology for the Defense Department.
The company’s technical efforts are led by its Chief Nuclear Officer, Mark Mitchell – the former president of Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC), which filed for bankruptcy in October 2024. Valar’s team includes several others from USNC.
New board member Philippone said Valar’s technology and design position it in a “sweet spot” to meet demand from the Defense Department to provide reliable, off-grid energy on military bases. “If you had one of these you could power a whole base,” he said. “If we turn this on in six months and it works like we think it will, it sets the stage for a generational company.”
In an interview in March, Taylor said, “Our regulatory environment is not formatted in a way that allows entrepreneurs like myself to quickly build a small reactor, test it out in the desert, and see if it works, and this is the only way advanced technology moves forward.”
Valar is one of several nuclear startups and states that are suing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over its licensing process for small reactor designs. The others are Deep Fission, along with the states of Texas, Utah, Florida, Louisiana, and Arizona’s state legislature. The plaintiffs argue that the NRC’s regulations are outdated and stifle innovation by applying overly stringent, costly, and time-consuming requirements to newer, smaller, and potentially safer reactor designs, such as small modular and microreactors. They are seeking a regulatory framework that modernises the process and allows for faster, more agile approvals for these advanced technologies.
