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

🚨 Flash Sale 🚨 Get $100 off your Disrupt 2026 ticket Get $400 off your Disrupt 2026 ticket: REGISTER NOW. Close TechCrunch Desktop Logo TechCrunch Mobile Logo LatestStartupsVentureAppleSecurityAIAppsDisrupt 2026 EventsPodcastsNewsletters SearchSubmit Site Search Toggle Mega Menu Toggle Topics Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture More from TechCrunch Staff Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us In Brief Posted: 10:16 AM PDT · August 3, 2026 Image Credits:Valar Atomics Julie Bort 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 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 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, Riot Ventures, Snowpoint Ventures, and Valor Equity Partners. var playerInstance_jwplayer_6a757044400b5 = jwplayer( "jwplayer_6a757044400b5" ); playerInstance_jwplayer_6a757044400b5.setup(); Topics Climate, Fundraising, In Brief, Sequoia, Startups, TC, valar atomics October 13 – 15 San Francisco Scale faster.

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