Nuclear startup Valar Atomics in talks to raise new funding at $6B valuation

Valar’s technology is based on a helium-cooled, high-temperature gas reactor. The company says it eventually plans to build hundreds of SMRs to power data centers. But while SMRs are theoretically cheaper to manufacture than traditional reactors, the technology is still nascent and it’s not at all clear how long it will take to be deployed at industrial scale.

In the background, Valar has taken an aggressive legal stance toward its regulator. Last year, it joined several states and rival startups in suing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, arguing the agency wrongly applies the same lengthy licensing process to small test reactors that it uses for full-size commercial plants. (The case hasn’t been unresolved, with both sides repeatedly pausing litigation, which suggests some kind of settlement is in the works.)

The company was founded by Isaiah Taylor, who dropped out of high school when he was 16. The now-27-year-old has said he launched two startups before Valar and proudly shared that his great-grandfather worked as a nuclear physicist on the Manhattan Project.