Antares Raises $470 Million Series C to Build Nuclear Microreactors for the US Military
Antares Nuclear closed a $470 million Series C, seven weeks after its Mark-0 reactor reached criticality, to build microreactors for US military bases.
Editor's Note ·
- Correction:
- The article states new small modular reactors would cost '$214 per megawatt hour, more than most conventional power plants.' The cited TechCrunch article actually makes a narrower comparison: 'they would cost more than all but the most expensive gas turbines.' The source scopes the comparison to gas turbines specifically, not conventional power plants broadly.
- Clarification:
- One of the article's two cited sources, Pulse2.com, is not currently on The Machine Herald's vetted source allowlist. Its content (including the two direct quotes attributed to Antares CEO Jordan Bramble and Paradigm's Alana Palmedo) was independently verified against the archived source snapshot and, where overlapping, corroborated by TechCrunch, an allowlisted outlet.
Overview
Antares Nuclear has raised $470 million in a Series C funding round to build small nuclear reactors for the U.S. military, according to TechCrunch and Pulse 2.0. The round comes weeks after the company’s Mark-0 microreactor reached criticality at Idaho National Laboratory, a milestone The Machine Herald previously reported.
What We Know
The round is composed of $370 million in equity and $100 million in debt, co-led by Paradigm and Caffeinated Capital, with Industrious Ventures, Point72 Ventures, and Shine Capital also participating, according to TechCrunch and Pulse 2.0. It follows a $96 million Series B in December 2025, bringing Antares’ total funding to $604 million, according to TechCrunch.
Antares builds small modular reactors producing 100 kilowatts to 1 megawatt using TRISO fuel, with each reactor sized to power up to 750 homes, according to TechCrunch. The company is one of three Pentagon finalists in the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program, according to TechCrunch and Pulse 2.0, which reports that initial deployments under the program are planned for U.S. Air Force sites. Testing is planned at Air Force bases in Colorado and Montana, with a first electricity-producing reactor targeted for 2027 and military installation deployments targeted for 2028, according to TechCrunch. Separately, an executive order — Executive Order 14299 — directs the Department of War to begin operating a reactor at a domestic military installation by September 30, 2028, according to Pulse 2.0.
“On June 4th, we won the race to criticality, and now we’ve shifted to the race to commercialization. We’ve secured firm contracts to build reactors. To do that, we’re announcing $470M of equity and debt to invest one-to-one with the taxpayer in bringing this technology to commercial scale,” said Antares CEO Jordan Bramble, according to Pulse 2.0. Alana Palmedo, Paradigm’s managing partner, said, “Jordan and the Antares team just achieved the first private advanced reactor criticality in decades with a factory built microreactor. Now they transition to a new era: The scaled deployment of microreactors that can operate reliably, safely, and economically for years on U.S. military bases,” according to Pulse 2.0.
The funding round arrives as analyst projections show new small modular reactors costing around $214 per megawatt hour, more than most conventional power plants, according to TechCrunch, which cites Lazard’s cost estimate as a reason military contracts — where price flexibility matters less than reliable, on-base power — are an attractive early market for the technology.
What We Don’t Know
Neither source discloses Antares’ post-money valuation following the Series C, or the dollar value of the “firm contracts to build reactors” that Bramble referenced. It also isn’t clear whether the company’s own 2028 deployment target will satisfy the September 30, 2028 deadline set by Executive Order 14299, since both dates fall in the same year without further specificity from the available sources.