Image generated using ChatGPT. Based off previous imagery with added container trucks, a plane, and a rocket. Later retouched. September 12, 2025.

IQT is excited to kick off our discussion of Strategic Industrialization, in which we’ll be examining innovative companies addressing critical gaps in U.S. and allied manufacturing, engineering biology, and energy landscapes. Energy systems are a foundational enabler in the Strategic Industrialization stack, so it’s only natural to start by diving deeper into an energy technology with tremendous momentum in the venture ecosystem and broader markets: nuclear.

You may have heard that the nuclear energy sector is having a moment. New company formation and funding activity have rocketed forward in 2025, utilities and hyperscalers have substantiated demand through partnerships with reactor developers, and a series of executive orders have been issued aimed at speeding up licensing and testing, supporting fuel production and recycling, and setting ambitious targets towards new nuclear capacity to support the U.S.’s industrial base. What got us to this moment, and why is nuclear uniquely poised to capitalize on the opportunity?

How We Got Here

U.S. power demand is rising faster than it has in decades, driven by the buildout of AI data centers and the electrification of manufacturing, transportation, and facility HVAC systems. As demand grows, U.S. energy systems are facing mounting pressure to deploy flexible and high-density electrical generation sources for data centers, manufacturing, mining, oil & gas, and other applications. The stakes are high: the United States stands to gain enormous economic and strategic benefit from the invigoration of domestic manufacturing and continued leadership in deployment of AI infrastructure.

However, our options to rapidly scale energy generation supply to meet this demand are beset by challenges:

• Combined cycle gas generator manufacturers are backlogged for multiple years.
• Portable diesel generators require long fuel resupply logistical tails.
• Renewable solar and wind sources are challenged by China-reliant supply chains, siting dynamics, and intermittent output signatures which (without plentiful energy storage) are unfit for high baseload power.
• Innovations in fusion, advanced geothermal, and other emerging technologies show promise but are unlikely to begin scaled deployments for 5-10 years.

Against this backdrop, nuclear power deployment has emerged as uniquely positioned to support American technology, diplomacy, and industry leadership. However, the United States nuclear industry has its own set of challenges, particularly related to high historical variability in popular support and recent nuclear construction projects’ tendencies to overrun on time and budget. The nuclear industry’s public support has been historically susceptible to misconceptions about its safety and environmental impact, although decades of operating performance have demonstrated that the United States’ civil and military nuclear fleets are among the safest and most capable forms of energy generation at our disposal.

While there are many potential reasons for the nuclear industry’s historical construction woes, the result has been clear: after a period of rapid growth in United States nuclear power plant construction starts from 1954 to1978, new capacity additions have stalled. This stagnation has driven an array of problems, including weakening of domestic nuclear labor pools, reactor component supply chains, and (most problematically) fuel supply chains. Domestic nuclear fuel production has degraded such that the United States no longer has sufficient production capacity to fuel and operate its own civil nuclear reactors without assistance from foreign-controlled companies. With nuclear power currently supplying ~19% of U.S. grid-scale electricity and new advanced reactors on the horizon (more on this in a moment), dependence on imported nuclear fuel presents a clear and growing energy security challenge. Russia and China have capitalized on the United States’ diminished nuclear leadership and established leading positions in fuel and reactor technology exports. Despite these challenges, nuclear power’s unique benefits have invited broad bipartisan support, with both the Biden and Trump administrations supporting increased nuclear power innovation and deployment.

IQT’s Investments in General Matter and Radiant

IQT has historically invested in and supported the emerging energy ecosystem, and over the past few years, we’ve actively engaged with the next generation of nuclear technology companies. We recently published a blog contemplating parallels between innovators in the nuclear and commercial space sectors. We also announced our first two nuclear sector investments in General Matter and Radiant.

General Matter is fortifying the United States’ nuclear fuel supply chain by providing domestic, scalable, commercially competitive fuel enrichment services for existing reactors (which need low enriched uranium, or “LEU”) and advanced reactors (which typically need high-assay low enriched uranium, or “HALEU”). General Matter was incubated inside Founders Fund in 2023 by CEO Scott Nolan in response to the U.S.’s enrichment gap and its impact on the domestic nuclear energy industry and U.S. global competitiveness.  Since its public launch, General Matter has demonstrated remarkable traction, most recently breaking ground on its first commercial facility in Paducah, Kentucky and raising more than $75M to fund development.  This facility will be the first U.S.-owned and privately developed enrichment facility in the country, designed to displace enriched uranium imports from adversarial suppliers by the end of the decade, enabling America’s ambitions from AI leadership to manufacturing.  General Matter plans to make the U.S. a net exporter of uranium enrichment in the 2030s, increasing U.S. soft power overseas and making nuclear energy the cleanest, safest and most affordable source of baseload energy in the U.S.

Radiant is aiming to mass-produce self-contained, portable nuclear microreactors that can be built at pace to support critical applications ranging from onsite power generation for data centers to austere deployments for defense infrastructure. Radiant’s Kaleidos units will be fully assembled in factory, pre-fueled with meltdown-resistant TRISO fuel, and shipped via road, rail, or plane to their destination, where they will function as “nuclear generators” to provide 1 megawatt of power (enough to power ~1,000 homes). Radiant’s focus on microreactors presents unique potential to leverage and grow existing domestic reactor component supply chains and labor pools. CEO Doug Bernauer launched Radiant after investigating nuclear’s ability to power Mars colonies and realizing its nearer-term ability to improve life for millions here on Earth, and the company has made swift and steady progress on its ultimate goal of Atoms for Prosperity. Radiant has demonstrated increasingly impressive technical achievements, and has begun generating exceptional traction for both commercial and defense deployments. Radiant was recently selected by the Department of Energy as the first company to test a new reactor at Idaho National Lab’s DOME facility (in Spring 2026) ahead of first customer deliveries beginning in 2028.

We’re proud to partner with and support both General Matter and Radiant in their respective missions of securing nuclear fuel supply chains and deploying safe nuclear reactors at scale to support the growing need for power within U.S. industry. Much work remains to be done, but we’re excited by the momentum and advancements these nuclear technology startups are demonstrating today, their potential to build more dynamic and resilient domestic energy systems, and their opportunity to power American strategic industrialization.

‍

‍