Nuclear Startup Backed by Luckey, Lockheed Director Raises $130 Million

Anduril Industries Inc. founder Palmer Luckey, a Lockheed Martin Corp. board member, Palantir Technology Inc.’s Shyam Sankar and other investors are putting $130 million into Valar Atomics, a nuclear startup that’s aiming to build thousands of advanced nuclear fission reactors within a decade.

The Hawthorne, California-based startup began construction in September in Utah on its first reactor and says it’s on track to demonstrate it can produce 100 kilowatts of thermal energy by July 4. Eventually, the company plans to mass manufacture small modular reactors and cluster them at so-called gigasites, where they will help power artificial intelligence data centers, industrial manufacturers and other customers.