The energy landscape is rapidly changing, and the demand for clean, reliable power has never been greater. As I mentioned in my predictions at the beginning of the year, we’re entering what I call “The Aquarius Economy” – a time when humanism collides with cutting-edge technology. While Creators will drive much of this new economy, its very existence will rely on the ready availability of power – and lots of it. As our team explored in an ongoing Alpaca VC Field Study series on U.S. Power Availability, hyperscalers are facing unprecedented power demands for AI workloads and energy is becoming the critical constraint to innovation. Enter Applied Atomics.

The Nuclear Opportunity

Utility companies are struggling to provide power to hyperscalers — there are over 2,600 GW of projects waiting to connect to the grid. Hyperscalers are taking matters into their own hands. In 2024, Amazon announced $50B+ in data center projects, and has committed over $100-$150B to build outs in the next 15 years. Microsoft reopened Three Mile Island in the largest power purchase agreement ever, spanning over 20 years.

As the team shared today, Applied Atomics plans to develop full-stack, co-located nuclear power for hyperscalers and advanced industries. Their differentiator is two-fold: instead of solely developing a reactor, AA builds, owns, and operates the full nuclear plant. This means that instead of one-off hardware sales, every plant they bring online represents ~$100M in recurring revenue. Additionally, they are taking the SpaceX Falcon 9 approach to achieve first mover advantage: updating legacy technology for the modern age to improve deployment speed and streamline regulatory approvals.

The It Factor

The Applied Atomics team brings together an exceptional blend of experience from both space technology and nuclear power industries:

Ben Kellie (CEO) — Ben was a key engineer at SpaceX working on launch site operations and infrastructure. He led teams to build the Vandenberg launch site and worked on critical projects including the Landing Barge that enabled Falcon 9’s successful recovery. Ben’s leadership by example inspires teams to work tirelessly to meet ambitious timelines. Following SpaceX, Ben built and sold The Launch Company, a bootstrapped business that solved first-of-a-kind deployments for several companies in the New Space industry before exiting to PE.

Paul Keutelian (CTO) — Paul worked closely with Ben at SpaceX, where he managed complex technical operations and developed strong regulatory expertise. His extensive work with high-energy systems and fluid engineering was crucial to SpaceX’s certification process. Beyond SpaceX, Paul co-founded Radiant Nuclear ($100M+ raised) with valuable experience bringing reactor designs to life alongside the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Mark Lambert (CFO) — Mark is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive with over 17 years of experience in high-growth startups, financial management, regulatory compliance, and venture capital. He previously founded and served as CEO of a B2B SaaS platform specializing in regulatory compliance and financial accounting for highly regulated industries, which processed over a billion dollars annually in financial transactions. Mark also serves as Chair of the Tech Investment Committee for NuFund Venture Group and has worked closely with national venture capital funds on advanced financial modeling and strategies for accessing highly regulated government funding programs, including the U.S. Treasury’s SSBIC program and the SBA’s SBIC program.

They also bring a stable of strong advisors on board such as Dr. Richard Martineu — A respected nuclear energy expert & scientist who spent 30 years at Idaho National Lab, running their modeling and simulation programs. He invented many modern frameworks used in National Labs for next-generational modeling and simulation.

The team’s experience in both First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) demonstrations across the Energy and Space industries positions them uniquely to execute on their vision to do the same for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).

Why Now?

Unlike solar + storage, nuclear provides 24/7 continuous power, needed for the high-uptime data centers that support AI. Nuclear fits clean energy mandates while providing much needed stability in infrastructure planning for data centers. Furthermore, nuclear has the lowest land use requirements of energy resources (it’s 3000x denser than solar) and can provide power in regions underserved by the grid. Nuclear co-location can reduce energy costs by 15-30% (and can be as high as 60%) just by avoiding transmission build outs.

The regulatory environment is increasingly favorable: The ADVANCE Act of 2024 reduces regulatory approval strain for new reactor designs, and the NRC has proposed “Part 52” in response to congressional demands, a new licensing framework that aims to speed up timelines.

Applied Atomics is targeting the most lucrative swath of the power markets (hyperscalers) while avoiding utility tie-ins to bring their first plant online and immediately become a massive business. While many nuclear startups focus on next-gen reactor designs that face lengthy approval processes, Applied Atomics is taking a pragmatic approach: modifying Generation III SMRs that rely on existing lightwater technology and readily available fuels. This approach eases supply chain and regulatory constraints, with NRC licensing timelines potentially as short as 36-48 months.

At Alpaca, we’re excited by the team’s approach to vertical integration, which streamlines costs and timelines through better control of the end-to-end process. Similar to what we’ve seen with SpaceX in the launch industry, this approach offers the ability to deliver 24/7 clean, firm power to hyperscalers at a fraction of the cost and timeline compared to traditional nuclear projects. Faster, cheaper typically wins in competitive markets and we think this team has a shot at speeds to market never before seen.

We’re proud to lead this pre-seed round and believe Applied Atomics has the team and thesis to become the first company to deploy SMRs to hyperscalers and become a transformative business in the process.

Connect with Applied Atomics

Applied Atomics on LinkedIn
Applied Atomics Website
Careers at Applied Atomics on the Alpaca Job Board

Subscribe to our newsletter for tech updates, events, open roles, and portfolio news. Follow Alpaca on Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.