Valar Atomics

Valuation tripled to ~$6B at the Aug 2026 Series B. NOTE: a previous uncited entry here recorded a $450M Series B at $2.0B in Apr 2026. The August reporting puts total raised at ~$1.13B including a prior $130M round backed by Palmer Luckey and Shyam Sankar, which leaves no room for it — it appears to have been a garbled version of that earlier round, and was removed under the sourcing rules.

LeadershipIsaiah Taylor

OwnershipPrivate

Valuation~$6B

Latest roundSeries B (Aug '26)

Raised$1B Series B (Aug '26); ~$1.13B total, plus a $200M credit facility

Top investorsSequoia Capital (lead), Riot Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Conviction, Snowpoint Ventures, Apandion, Dream Ventures, HOF Capital; earlier round backed by Palmer Luckey and Shyam Sankar

The program

The machines being built, in order, and what each one proves.

NOVA CoreCore testOptional stepcomplete · 17-Nov-25

Core-only critical experiment at LANL/NNSA National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC), Nevada — 17 Nov 2025. An assembly modeling a SUBSECTION of the Ward-250 core, not the whole core and not inside the machine. Week-long campaign: 10 critical configurations, 26 subcritical tests, ~100 GB of data, foil activation and helium-3 detector readings used to validate neutronics codes and control-rod worth. An OPTIONAL de-risking step, not a required rung — most developers skip it.

Ward-250Democomplete · 18-Jun-26

First criticality 18 Jun 2026.

Ward-TBDDemoplanned

Valar’s next machine and their commercial-scale demonstration — a demo at commercial scale rather than the commercial product, the same shape as Aalo-X. Which design it uses has not been decided: Valar holds designs for both a 5 MWe and a 25 MWe Ward, so this entry deliberately does not pick one. It has to close everything Ward-250 left open: a full fuel load, full power, and the commercial power conversion.

Designs

3 in the tracker

Design	Stage	Type	Coolant	MWe	Site	Criticality	Open in
Ward-250	Demo	HTGR	Helium	5	San Rafael Energy Lab	18-Jun-26	Criticality Timeline Buildout Anatomy
Ward 5MWe	Commercial	HTGR	Helium	5	Site TBD	Target - 2028	Timeline LCOE Design space Anatomy
Ward 25MWe	Commercial	HTGR	Helium	25	Site TBD	Pending	Anatomy

Manufacturing

1 facility

Factory production (announced)Reactor lineannounced

Stated capacitynot published

Valar raised a $1B Series B led by Sequoia in Aug 2026 explicitly to move from demonstration to factory production. No facility location, floor area or annual throughput has been published yet.

Order book

2 deals · 9,675 MWe announced · 30 MWe firm

Customer	Site	Design	Units	MWe	Firm MWe	Commitment
Nvidia	San Rafael Energy Research Center	Ward 25MWe	3	75	30	binding
Project Beehive (no offtaker named)	Project Beehive	Ward 25MWe	456	9600	—	none

Latest

8 tracked events

30 Sep 2026Valar's Project Beehive comes to light: a BLM application for 456 reactors and about 9.6 GW of data-center power near Price, Utah, with first reactors targeted for 2028.3 Aug 2026Valar Atomics raises a $1B Series B led by Sequoia at a ~$6B valuation, tripling its valuation, plus a $200M credit facility — to move from demonstration to factory production.2 Jul 2026Valar's Ward-250 reaches full power, 100 kWt, according to DOE's slides to the NRC Commission.1 Jul 2026Valar's Ward-250 runs an Nvidia DGX Spark on electricity from a thermoelectric generator.21 Jun 2026Valar's Ward-250 begins power ascension and holds 10 kWt of thermal output overnight.18 Jun 2026Valar Atomics' Ward-250 achieves zero-power criticality in Utah.

20 Nov 2025Valar Atomics' Ward-250 enters the DOE reactor pilot program.

17 Nov 2025Valar Atomics NOVA core assembly reaches zero-power criticality at NCERC in Nevada — a subsection of the Ward-250 core, taken critical outside the machine.