Palantir joins tech-nuclear bandwagon with software deal • The Register

Palantir has change into the most recent tech firm to leap on the nuclear energy bandwagon – not by making a datacenter deal like Microsoft or Amazon, thoughts you, however by offering its knowledge analytics software program to a startup aiming to assist construct nuclear vegetation sooner and cheaper.

The information analytics software program supplier announced a cope with The Nuclear Firm (TNC) to construct a so-called Nuclear Working System (NOS) designed to supply data-driven visibility into power-plant building.

Most El Reg readers are seemingly conversant in Palantir, which has gained plenty of consideration for its gung ho pro-America rhetoric and for its latest spate of US government contract wins below the second Trump administration.

TNC is a little more obscure. 

The biz was based in 2023 with the goal of serving as a undertaking administration firm for brand new nuclear energy initiatives. Somewhat than constructing and managing its personal fleet of nuclear energy vegetation, which has usually been the area of native power suppliers, TNC hopes to get investments from accomplice firms seeking to construct their very own “fleet-scale” nuclear energy vegetation. Not like different startups targeted on new designs, like small modular reactors, TNC goals to make use of current designs and concentrate on websites that have already got permits or licenses to function.

The concept behind that technique, TNC stated, is to hurry up the nuclear energy improvement course of, cut back prices, and make initiatives extra predictable. This century, nuclear buildouts within the US dropped to a crawl and have been plagued by long delays and price overruns, however there’s been a brand new burst of curiosity as hyperscalers race to construct power-hungry datacenters for his or her AI buildouts. With that mini boomlet on the horizon, the startup has raised $70 million from a wide range of backers, together with a $53 million spherical earlier this 12 months led by defense-focused enterprise capital agency Eclipse Ventures, as per Pitchbook. 

Palantir’s function is to assist develop NOS to “rework the development of nuclear reactors right into a data-driven, predictable course of” that can enable TNC “to construct vegetation sooner and safer for much less.” Palantir engineers will probably be embedded inside TNC to work on the undertaking. 

In line with the businesses’ assertion, NOS will be capable of monitor a number of features of a nuclear energy undertaking, from provide chains and calendars to regulatory assurance and on-site points, all in actual time. 

No timeline for the deployment of such software program was talked about within the press launch. Moreover, it is unclear whether or not TNC has even managed to start a single nuclear energy undertaking – its web site would not point out that something however solicitations have been despatched out to gauge contractor curiosity. The corporate stated it needs to deploy 6 GW of nuclear energy in its first spherical of initiatives, however nothing suggests these initiatives have gone past the twinkle-in-eye stage.

Whereas this can be a special type of nuclear funding than the type made by Amazon, Microsoft, and the like of late, Palantir’s deal continues to be a case of a giant partnership with an atomic power agency that has but to prove it’s more than just hype.

We reached out to each Palantir and The Nuclear Firm with questions, however have not heard again. ®