Nuclear startup Valar Atomics in talks to raise new funding at $6B valuation
Nuclear startup Valar Atomics in talks to raise new funding at $6B valuation
核能初创公司 Valar Atomics 拟以 60 亿美元估值进行新一轮融资
Valar Atomics, a startup building small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) — essentially miniaturized, factory-built power plants designed to be cheaper and faster to deploy than traditional reactors — is in talks to raise a new round of capital, according to three sources familiar with the company. 据三位知情人士透露，正在研发小型模块化反应堆（SMR）的初创公司 Valar Atomics 目前正在商谈新一轮融资。SMR 本质上是小型化、工厂制造的发电厂，旨在比传统反应堆更便宜、部署速度更快。
The three-year-old company is seeking a valuation of about $6 billion, and Sequoia is expected to lead the deal, the people said. The Information was the first to report the funding discussions, including that the El Segundo, California, startup is raising a $1 billion equity round. 知情人士称，这家成立三年的公司寻求约 60 亿美元的估值，预计红杉资本（Sequoia）将领投此轮融资。《The Information》率先报道了此次融资谈判，并指出这家位于加州埃尔塞贡多的初创公司正在筹集 10 亿美元的股权融资。
Part of that capital has been raised previously at a lower valuation, the people told TechCrunch. Specifically, Valar has raised $450 million — including $340 million in equity and $110 million in debt — at a $2 billion valuation, per a Bloomberg report in March. 知情人士告诉 TechCrunch，部分资金此前已以较低的估值筹集。据彭博社 3 月份的报道，Valar 此前已以 20 亿美元的估值筹集了 4.5 亿美元，其中包括 3.4 亿美元的股权和 1.1 亿美元的债务。
Deals structured in multiple installments at varying valuations, occasionally executed at different times, are becoming increasingly common in today’s AI-fueled fundraising environment. These deals can create the perception that capital was invested at a single, uniform valuation. In reality, investors in the same round can end up paying different prices for the same company — a distinction that matters more than ever as outsiders try to benchmark red-hot startups against one another. Sequoia and Valar Atomics declined to comment. 在当今人工智能驱动的融资环境下，以不同估值分期进行、且有时在不同时间执行的交易正变得越来越普遍。这些交易可能会让人产生一种错觉，即资本是在单一、统一的估值下投入的。实际上，同一轮融资中的投资者最终可能为同一家公司支付不同的价格——随着外界试图对热门初创公司进行基准比较，这种区别变得比以往任何时候都更加重要。红杉资本和 Valar Atomics 均拒绝置评。
Earlier this month, the company showed that its nuclear reactor provided a small amount of power to an Nvidia AI chip. Concurrently with that proof-of-concept demonstration, Valar and Nvidia announced a partnership to explore the development of nuclear energy to power future AI data centers. 本月初，该公司展示了其核反应堆为英伟达（Nvidia）的一款 AI 芯片提供了少量电力。在进行该概念验证演示的同时，Valar 和英伟达宣布建立合作伙伴关系，共同探索开发核能以驱动未来的 AI 数据中心。
Valar’s rise is playing out against a broader demand crunch. Data center electricity needs are projected to grow sharply over the next several years, and utilities in many regions are years away from adding enough new capacity. That vacuum has turned nuclear power — long plagued by cost overruns and regulatory bottlenecks — into one of the more closely watched corners of the AI infrastructure boom. Valar 的崛起正值电力需求紧缺的背景之下。预计未来几年数据中心的电力需求将急剧增长，而许多地区的公用事业公司距离增加足够的产能还需要数年时间。这种电力缺口使得核能——长期以来一直受困于成本超支和监管瓶颈——成为了 AI 基础设施热潮中备受关注的领域之一。
Valar counts Palmer Luckey, the Anduril founder, and Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer, among its backers. Others chasing the opportunity include Kairos Power and TerraPower (backed by Bill Gates), which are building next-generation reactors aimed at tech and industrial customers, and NuScale Power, the only SMR developer with U.S. regulatory design approval. (Last year, it won approval for an upgraded, higher-output reactor design.) Valar 的支持者包括 Anduril 创始人 Palmer Luckey 和 Palantir 首席技术官 Shyam Sankar。其他追逐这一机遇的公司还包括 Kairos Power 和比尔·盖茨支持的 TerraPower（它们正在建造面向科技和工业客户的下一代反应堆），以及 NuScale Power（唯一获得美国监管机构设计批准的 SMR 开发商，去年其升级版高输出反应堆设计获得了批准）。
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. Valar 的技术基于氦冷高温气冷堆。该公司表示，最终计划建造数百个 SMR 来为数据中心供电。然而，尽管 SMR 在理论上比传统反应堆制造成本更低，但该技术仍处于萌芽阶段，尚不清楚需要多长时间才能实现工业规模部署。
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.) 在幕后，Valar 对其监管机构采取了强硬的法律立场。去年，它与几个州和竞争对手初创公司一起起诉了核管理委员会（NRC），认为该机构错误地将用于大型商业电厂的漫长许可流程，同样应用于小型测试反应堆。（该案件尚未解决，双方多次暂停诉讼，这表明某种和解方案正在酝酿中。）
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. 该公司由 Isaiah Taylor 创立，他在 16 岁时从高中辍学。现年 27 岁的他曾表示，在创立 Valar 之前，他已经创办过两家初创公司，并自豪地分享说他的曾祖父曾是曼哈顿计划中的一名核物理学家。