Valar Atomics has raised $1 billion in Series B funding to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of standardized nuclear power plants serving artificial intelligence infrastructure, industrial operations and national security applications.
Sequoia Capital led the equity financing, with participation from Apandion, Atreides Management, Conviction, Dream Ventures, HOF Capital, Point72, Riot Ventures, Snowpoint Ventures, Valor Equity Partners and other new and existing investors.
Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire will join Valar Atomics’ board of directors as part of the investment.
In addition to the Series B round, Valar closed a $200 million credit facility led by Erebor Bank as administrative agent and JPMorgan. Crescent Cove and Hercules Capital also participated in the facility.
The two financings provide Valar with $1.2 billion in new equity and debt capital to expand its vertically integrated nuclear energy platform.
Valar plans to use the funding to move from demonstrating an integrated reactor system to manufacturing and operating fleets of reactors at scale.
The company’s strategy is based on applying standardized manufacturing processes to nuclear energy rather than approaching each reactor as a separate, highly customized infrastructure project.
Valar said it intends to manage a broad portion of the nuclear power value chain internally, including reactor production, deployment, long-term operation and fuel manufacturing.
The company plans to construct fuel production facilities alongside the reactors that will use the fuel, reducing its dependence on outside suppliers as deployment increases.
Valar was founded approximately three years ago to address the cost, construction time and supply chain challenges associated with conventional nuclear power plants.
The company’s development work has included the Ward Zero non-nuclear prototype and the NOVA core, which achieved cold criticality at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Valar was also selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program and Advanced Nuclear Fuel Line Pilot Program.
The company later completed its Ward 250 reactor and said it achieved self-sustaining criticality on June 18, 2026.
According to Valar, the milestone made it the first company to take a nuclear reactor critical outside a national laboratory. The company also said Ward 250 subsequently generated electricity used to power an NVIDIA Blackwell system during a live demonstration.
Valar and NVIDIA also announced a collaboration involving a waterless, 30-megawatt AI factory designed to operate alongside Ward 250’s waterless reactor technology.
The company plans to use operating data from Ward 250 to improve the design, manufacturing, deployment and operation of future reactors.
Valar described this continuous data and production cycle as central to its effort to reduce manufacturing time and costs with each successive reactor.
The NOVA core took approximately two years to complete, while Valar said Ward 250 reached criticality seven months after the relevant development stage began.
The company’s long-term objective is to progress from producing tens of reactors annually to hundreds and eventually thousands.
Valar expects future reactors to be deployed in groups supporting power-intensive infrastructure, including AI data centers, advanced manufacturing, steel production and electrolysis.
The company is positioning its technology as a source of carbon-free electricity that can operate without placing additional demands on local water supplies.
Valar said the financing will allow it to build the manufacturing capacity, fuel infrastructure and operating organization required to convert its reactor technology into a repeatable commercial platform.
