Radiant Nuclear raises $300M+, secures Equinix order for 20 reactors and Air Force contract
Dec 17, 2025 with Doug Bernauer
Key Points
- Radiant Nuclear raises $300M+ at $1.8B valuation, deploying capital entirely toward production facility in Tennessee and first reactor demonstration at Idaho National Laboratory by summer 2025.
- Equinix orders 20 microreactors while U.S. Air Force contracts for additional units, establishing hyperscalers and defense as anchor customers for the one-megawatt shipping-container design.
- CEO frames regulatory progress as cultural activation within existing agencies rather than rule changes, citing NRC and Department of Energy moving with greater urgency under current administration.
Summary
Radiant Nuclear has raised over $300 million in new funding led by Boost and Draper Associates, pushing the El Segundo-based startup to a $1.8 billion valuation. The round is being deployed entirely into development and production, not research, reflecting the company's pivot from design to build mode.
Doug Bernour, Radiant's founder, confirmed that all components for the company's first reactor are ordered and being assembled, with a goal of going critical at Idaho National Laboratory before summer 2025. If achieved, that would mark the first new reactor design to go critical at INL since 1977. Fuel access was secured in May and is now at a fabricator being manufactured for the reactor.
On the commercial side, Equinix has placed an order for 20 units, a direct signal of AI-driven data center demand pulling microreactor technology into the hyperscaler supply chain. The U.S. Air Force, through the Defense Innovation Unit, has also contracted for several units, reinforcing the military as a near-term anchor customer alongside remote industrial and energy applications.
Capital from the raise will fund a new production facility on an 80-acre Department of Energy site in Tennessee, where construction is set to begin imminently. Bernour expects the Tennessee facility to be operational and capable of fueling reactors before the end of 2026, a timeline he attributes in part to faster NRC movement under the current administration. Radiant also recently added a second building in El Segundo, now operating out of two sites there.
Bernour frames Radiant's engineering philosophy around the SpaceX first-principles model, specifically owning the full stack down to printed circuit boards and embedded software, rather than relying on legacy nuclear supply chains built around large-scale gigawatt plants. The one-megawatt, shipping-container-scale form factor remains unchanged.
On the regulatory environment, Bernour characterizes the shift less as specific rule changes and more as a cultural activation within existing institutions. The NRC and Department of Energy have the same personnel, but are now moving with greater urgency. He also highlighted the Army's Janus program as an additional federal driver that could accelerate portable reactor deployment. Domestic uranium enrichment investment, absent since 2013, is also resuming, removing a key upstream constraint for the sector.