Nuclear startup Valar Atomics is in talks to raise fresh funding at a valuation of roughly $6 billion, with Sequoia Capital expected to lead a $1 billion equity round, according to sources familiar with the matter. The three-year-old California firm builds small modular reactors (SMRs), factory-built nuclear plants intended to be cheaper and faster to deploy than conventional reactors, and its rapid valuation growth reflects surging investor interest in nuclear power as a solution to soaring data centre electricity demand from the AI boom.

Part of the new round builds on capital already raised at a lower valuation: Valar previously secured $450 million, comprising $340 million in equity and $110 million in debt, at a $2 billion valuation as of March. Such multi-tranche deals at varying valuations are increasingly common amid the AI fundraising surge, though they can obscure true pricing since investors in the same round may pay different amounts. Backed by Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, Valar recently demonstrated its reactor powering an Nvidia AI chip and struck a partnership with Nvidia to explore nuclear-powered data centres. The company, founded by 27-year-old Isaiah Taylor, is also suing the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, arguing it wrongly subjects small test reactors to the same lengthy licensing process as full-size plants.