The raise and who is backing it
Elementl Power is lining up $750 million to fund the earliest phases of nuclear development, including utility-scale buildouts in at least one case. According to people familiar, DS Investment Partners is heading a consortium that has committed up to $200 million to move as many as three Elementl initiatives forward.
Samsung C&T Corp. is in discussions to provide some engineering support and is committing capital as well. Founded in 2022, Elementl already counts Energy Impact Partners and T. Rowe Price Group among its backers.
Technology, site, and scale
The Washington-based developer is pursuing smaller-footprint reactor concepts compared with traditional nuclear plants. Elementl is advancing plans to install GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy small modular reactors in Meigs County, Ohio - once a hub for Appalachian coal mining - with capacity goals reaching up to 1.5 gigawatts.
No small modular reactor has reached commercial-scale operation in the US to date. That is a high bar, even as demand accelerates.
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Why now, and the hurdles
Record electricity needs from data centers are pulling new entrants into nuclear, but they still have to clear two big obstacles: operating licenses and the money to build. Conventional nuclear has usually leaned on substantial government support, with many investors viewing it as capital heavy and risky. Nuclear can run around the clock at high capacity, and demand for data center power is far outpacing supply, pushing tech firms to seek nuclear deals.
Elementl plans to use this raise for work needed before customers sign contracts. "The hope is that will open the door for more traditional project financing in future," said chief executive officer Chris Colbert, pointing to larger institutions that typically step in once projects generate cash. The demand backdrop is blunt in his words: "Power is increasingly the bottleneck," and "We're seeing huge demand signal from domestic manufacturing, re-onshoring and the AI race, which the US can't afford to lose."
What it means for your portfolio
This raise effectively gauges how willing private investors are to back the earliest phases of atomic-energy developments, prior to traditional project financing. Last year, Elementl entered into a deal with Alphabet Inc.'s Google to identify and prepare locations for nuclear power projects, signaling that prospective customers are surveying the landscape as the supply crunch intensifies.
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