Valar Atomics, a nuclear energy startup backed by Palmer Luckey and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, has raised fresh capital at a $2 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg. The company reportedly brought in $450 million in the deal, including $340 million in equity and $110 million in debt.
The latest round follows Valar’s $130 million round announced in November 2025, which was led by Snowpoint Ventures, the venture firm co‑founded by Palantir’s former head of global defence. Investors in the earlier round include Palmer Luckey, Shyam Sankar, and Lockheed Martin board member John Donovan.
Founded in 2023 in California by Isaiah Taylor, CEO of Valar Atomics, the company develops clusters of small, high‑temperature gas‑cooled reactors (HTGRs) designed to deliver dense, steady, carbon‑free power for AI data centres, industrial facilities, and grid‑constrained regions. The strategy is to target customers that need firm baseload without committing to multi‑gigawatt, traditional‑plant‑style nuclear builds.
Unlike TerraPower, Kairos Power, X‑energy, and Oklo, which are also advancing advanced‑reactor designs, Valar positions itself around AI-data-centre-scale load profiles and early engagement with the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program. The company is one of the first participants in that program to reach criticality, the point at which a reactor achieves a self‑sustaining reaction in steady state.
With $450 million at a $2 billion valuation, Valar is betting it can scale its small‑reactor clusters to meet large‑scale, AI‑driven power demand that could reshape both the electricity grid and how national‑security‑grade baseload is provisioned.
