Sequoia’s Shaun Maguire leads $1B round for nuclear startup Valar Atomics

Valar Atomics confirmed the whisperings that it was raising a giant round led by Sequoia on Monday. The startup’s founder and CEO Isaiah Taylor announced that the company has raised $1 billion in equity, with Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire joining its board, and that it also secured a $200 million line of credit from Erebor and other banks.

While the nuclear startup did not disclose its valuation, Bloomberg reported that it was $6 billion.

Valar is building small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) — essentially miniaturized, factory-built power plants intended to be cheaper and faster to build than traditional reactors. In June, it demonstrated its Ward 250 reactor successfully powering an Nvidia Blackwell system, the company said, and announced a deal with Nvidia to develop a waterless 30MW AI factory.

Valar says its reactors generate the engineering, manufacturing, and operational data needed to improve next-generation reactors, speeding its development cycles.

“It took two years to complete the NOVA core. It took seven months to take Ward 250 critical. With each reactor built, the tick rate will become smaller until Valar is producing tens, then hundreds, then thousands of reactors per year,” it said, adding that this funding will allow it to reach to its next milestone: manufacturing fleets of its SMRs.

It certainly isn’t the only nuclear startup pursuing such ambitions. Over the past few months, Antares raised $470 million, and X-energy raised $1 billion through its IPO.

As for Valar’s new round, other investors include Apandion Capital, Atreides Management, Conviction, Dream Ventures, HOF Capital, Point72 Ventures, Riot Ventures, Snowpoint Ventures, and Valor Equity Partners.