X-Energy Reactor Company, a leading developer of advanced nuclear reactors and fuel technology, has closed a Series C-1 financing round of about $500 million, led by Amazon.com. The funds will go toward finishing X-energy’s reactor design and licensing work and starting the first phase of its TRISO-X fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The funding will also support future carbon-free initiatives deploying X-energy’s Xe-100 advanced small modular nuclear reactors.
In a collaborative effort, Amazon and X-energy aim to bring over 5 gigawatts of new energy capacity online across the United States by 2039, marking the largest planned commercial deployment of SMRs to date. These efforts aim to meet rising energy needs in key areas by combining direct project investments with long-term power purchase agreements to supply Amazon’s operations. The partnership also intends to create a standardized deployment and financing framework for projects with infrastructure and utility collaborators.
The first initiative will involve a four-unit, 320-megawatt (“MW”) project with Energy Northwest in central Washington, with the potential to expand to 12 units totaling 960 MW. Amazon is committing an immediate investment to support early-stage development work undertaken by X-energy on this project.
“This collaboration between Amazon and X-energy is a significant step toward accelerating advanced nuclear technologies that can help us bring new sources of carbon-free energy to the grid cost-effectively and safely,” said Kevin Miller, Amazon’s Vice President of Global Data Centers. “We need smart solutions that can help us meet growing energy demands while also addressing climate change. X-energy’s technology will be integral in helping achieve this, and is an important step in Amazon’s work to achieve our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero by 2040.”
X-energy CEO J. Clay Sell added, “Amazon and X-energy are poised to define the future of advanced nuclear energy in the commercial marketplace. To fully realize the opportunities available through artificial intelligence, we must bring clean, safe, and reliable electrons onto the grid with proven technologies that can scale and grow with demand. We deeply appreciate our earliest funders and collaborators, notably the U.S. Department of Energy and Dow Inc. With Amazon, Ken Griffin, and our other strategic investors, we are now uniquely suited to deliver on this transformative vision for the future of energy and tech.”
The Xe-100 SMR and TRISO-X fuel represent some of the safest and most reliable clean energy solutions available. Each reactor unit delivers 80 MW of electricity and is designed for multi-unit plants ranging from 320 MW to 960 MW. The modular, road-shippable design aims to enhance geographic scalability, shorten construction timelines, and improve cost predictability. X-energy’s technology offers high efficiency and resiliency, making it well-suited to meet the energy demands of data centers while supporting Amazon’s carbon-free growth objectives.
X-energy is developing its first Xe-100 plant at Dow Inc.’s UCC Seadrift Operations site on the Texas Gulf Coast. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ADRP), this project will be the first grid-scale advanced nuclear reactor deployed to power an industrial site in North America, providing zero-carbon emissions electricity and high-temperature steam. ARDP also backs X-energy’s commercial facility to exclusively manufacture TRISO fuel, which the DOE describes as “the most robust nuclear fuel on Earth.”