Nvidia, through its venture capital arm NVentures, has joined Bill Gates and HD Hyundai in raising $650 million to back TerraPower, Gates’ nuclear power startup founded in 2006 that’s been working on small modular reactor (SMR) technology to standardize, miniaturize, and scale nuclear power. The startup is developing a 345-megawatt Natrium plant in Wyoming that uses liquid sodium for cooling and molten salt to store excess generated heat of up to one gigawatt for later storage. According to The Register, the nuclear power plant is being developed as part of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program of the Department of Energy, as it’s looking to push the next generation of clean and reliable energy sources.
This isn’t the first time that a tech company has put money into nuclear power, as several others have already invested in competing projects. For example, Oracle has secured permits to build three SMRs that can push out a total of one gigawatt for its AI data centers, while Microsoft plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor. Google soon followed suit, signing a deal with Kairos for seven SMRs for its operations, as Amazon is pouring money into three different energy companies — two of which work with nuclear reactors — to help secure its future power demands.
