Nvidia wants to enter the nuclear rebirth, invests in Terrapower supported by Bill Gates

TerrorThe nuclear startup founded and supported by Bill Gates, announced a new round of funding of $ 650 million this week. Investment will help the company build its first commercial power plant.

Like other nuclear startups, Terrapower has led a wave of interest Hyperscalers, data centers developers and now flea designers. Nvidia’s Venture Brack, Nentures, participated in the round, marking its first energy investment.

Bill Gates and HD Hyundai, both already on the CAP table, have also invested.

Terrapower began to build its first power plant in Wyoming in June 2024. The company has no approval for the reactor itself, although it expects to receive permits next year. Given the benign attitude of the Trump administration towards nuclear, this calendar seems reasonable.

Once finished, the first terrapower reactor will generate 345 megawatts of electricity, hitting an common ground between today’s conventional reactors and the small modular reactors promised of tomorrow.

The Natrium reactors of Terrapower are cooled not by water but by the melted sodium. Natrium design uses much more sodium than necessary to cool the reactor. It is by design: when the request is low, the reactor can continue to operate, sodium heating which is then stored in large tanks.

When demand increases again, steam turbines can pull heat from the stored sodium. Since nuclear power plants do not go up easily and below, this allows the Natrium reactors to continue to operate in the equilibrium state.

The storage system is designed to produce up to 500 megawatts of electricity for more than five hours, helping to fill the gaps in solar and wind production.

The startup had previously continued a different reactor design, which she hoped to finish by mid-2020. But after the assembly of the uncertainty, he changed CAP to continue the current conception of the Natrium.

Terrapower claims that he can complete a reactor within three years after the first batch of concrete is paid for the reactor. However, considerable preparation and construction of the site must occur before that.

And although there are signs that the first Natrium reactor will be cheaper than recent American reactors, it will not be cheap: the Associated Press reported last year that the bill could reach $ 4 billionhalf of which could be exhausted by the Ministry of Energy.