Big Tech is pouring billions into small modular reactors, betting that AI’s insatiable appetite for electricity will make nuclear energy’s comeback inevitable. X-energy raised $1.2 billion in roughly 18 months backed by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, while TerraPower, the nuclear venture co-founded by Bill Gates, secured $650 million with participation from NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture arm. Other notable players include Oklo, backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, which reached an agreement with Meta to develop a 1.2 GW campus in Ohio, and Kairos Power, which signed a deal with Google targeting 500 MW of advanced nuclear capacity by 2035. The US Department of Energy has set a target of July 4, 2026 for several of these startups to achieve reactor criticality.
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