Nuclear Rivalries & Hadrian’s Fresh Funds: Defense Investors' Year-End Bets
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Small modular reactor
15 min read
The article discusses Radiant's portable micro-reactors as a replacement for diesel generators. Understanding small modular reactor technology, its history, regulatory challenges, and how it differs from traditional nuclear plants provides essential context for evaluating these defense and energy investments.
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Military–industrial complex
12 min read
With defense tech companies like Palantir and Hadrian attracting massive venture capital, understanding the historical relationship between defense contractors, government spending, and private capital provides crucial context for why these investments are surging and the systemic forces at play.
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Offshoring
15 min read
The article explicitly mentions 'onshore manufacturing in Trump's America' as a driver of nuclear startup investment. Understanding the economic and political dynamics of onshoring—bringing manufacturing back to domestic soil—helps explain the policy environment fueling these defense and energy bets.
With public defense tech darling Palantir up 120% year-to-date, AI isn’t the only part of the startup sector that’s got venture capitalists buzzing. Investors are pouring more money into defense manufacturer Hadrian, sources tell us, at a $1.6 billion valuation. And nuclear startups have investors particularly excited with the opportunity to onshore manufacturing in Trump’s America and rising AI energy demands.
Sources tell us Radiant, a startup that is building portable micro-reactors to replace diesel fuel generators, is in talks to raise more than $250 million at a valuation above $1.5 billion, according to three sources familiar with the deal — a massive round that has become one of the clearest signals yet of how much investor appetite there is for hard tech and power-infrastructure startups in 2025. The round isn’t closed and it seems like there could still be some upward movement in the price if there’s enough investor appetite or demand for more capital from Radiant.
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