Energy · Profile from Energy Research Companion
TerraPower
The Bill Gates–founded reactor developer from Bellevue, Washington that spent its first decade on a travelling-wave reactor it never built, lost its planned first plant in China to US export policy (2019), and then rebuilt itself around Natrium — a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten-salt heat store that can lift output to ~500 MW for several hours — designed with GE Hitachi and half-funded by the Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP, selected Oct 2020). Its first plant, Kemmerer Unit 1 beside a retiring coal plant in Wyoming, began non-nuclear construction in June 2024, received the NRC's first construction permit for a commercial non-light-water power reactor on 4 Mar 2026 and started nuclear construction in late April 2026, with completion targeted for 2030 (company). In January 2026 Meta agreed to fund early development of two further Natrium units and took rights to the energy of up to six more — up to 2.8 GW of baseload, ~4 GW with storage (company). TerraPower's story turns less on reactor engineering than on fuel: Natrium needs high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), which in 2022 only Russia sold, and the loss of that supply cost the project at least two years.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2006 as a project inside Intellectual Ventures (Bellevue, Washington), backed by Bill Gates and led initially by Nathan Myhrvold's team (reported); a separate company from 2008 (verify)
- Headquarters
- Bellevue, Washington
- Ownership / structure
- Private; Bill Gates the founder, chairman and largest investor (reported); strategic investors include SK Inc. and SK Innovation (Korea), HD Hyundai (Korea) and, from June 2025, NVentures (Nvidia's venture arm) (company); TerraPower Isotopes is a subsidiary producing medical isotopes (actinium-225)
- Leadership (2026)
- Chris Levesque (president and CEO since 2015, formerly of Westinghouse, reported); Bill Gates (chairman)
- Product
- Natrium: 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor plus molten-salt thermal storage, ~500 MWe peak for more than five hours (company); developed with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy; Bechtel as EPC contractor at Kemmerer
- First plant
- Kemmerer Unit 1, Lincoln County, Wyoming, next to PacifiCorp's Naughton coal plant; reported cost up to ~$4bn, with DOE funding of up to ~$2bn under ARDP (reported, basis not disclosed — likely nominal, including first-of-a-kind engineering); completion targeted 2030 (company, 2026)
- Capital raised
- ~$750m round led by Gates and SK (Aug 2022); $650m round incl. NVentures and HD Hyundai (Jun 2025); >$1.4bn of private equity to mid-2025 by one press tally, a figure that probably counts only recent rounds (reported, verify)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding and the travelling-wave reactor (2006); China partnership and its halt (2015–19); Natrium and the ARDP award (2020); the SK-led raise (2022); the HALEU delay (Dec 2022); Kemmerer groundbreaking (Jun 2024); the $650m raise with Nvidia (Jun 2025); the NRC construction permit and nuclear construction start (Mar–Apr 2026); the Meta eight-unit agreement (Jan 2026)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2006
Founding and the Travelling Wave Reactor
Founding / technology bet
2015
China Partnership and Its Halt
Partnership / technology bet — ended by regulatory and political action (failure)
2020
Natrium and the DOE ARDP Award
Strategy pivot / technology bet / state support (cost-shared demonstration)
2022
HALEU Delay
Supply-chain shock and response (failure of the original fuel plan; strategy pivot into fuel supply)
2022
SK Led Raise and the Korean Supply Chain
Financing (private equity with strategic investors)
2024
Kemmerer Groundbreaking
Construction (non-nuclear works before the construction permit)
2025
650m Raise with Nvidia
Financing (private equity; strategic investor from the AI industry)
2026
Meta Eight Unit Agreement
Offtake or supply contract (development-funding agreement with energy rights)
2026
NRC Construction Permit and Nuclear Construction
Regulatory approval / construction