Deep Fission Gets $80M to Bury Nuclear Reactors, Powering the AI Boom

BERKELEY, CA – February 10, 2026 – Deep Fission, Inc., a startup aiming to revolutionize the energy sector by placing small nuclear reactors a mile underground, has secured $80 million in new financing. The funding round coincides with the announcement of a strategic relationship with Blue Owl Capital, a leading alternative asset manager, to provide round-the-clock clean power for the ravenous energy demands of the digital economy.

The Berkeley-based company’s latest capital raise, which saw the sale of restricted shares at $15.00 each, signals surging investor confidence in its novel approach. The valuation represents a significant leap from its September 2025 financing round, where shares were priced at $3.00. This new infusion of capital is earmarked to accelerate the commercialization of its subterranean small modular reactors (SMRs) and bolster a partnership that directly targets one of the modern world's most pressing challenges: powering the artificial intelligence boom.

A Strategic Bet on Baseload Power

The new partnership with Blue Owl Capital's Real Assets platform is perhaps the most telling aspect of the announcement. Blue Owl, which manages over $295 billion in assets, will collaborate with Deep Fission to deploy SMR projects specifically for its extensive digital infrastructure portfolio. This move highlights a critical chokepoint for the continued expansion of AI and data centers: the need for massive amounts of reliable, carbon-free electricity.

Data centers, the backbone of the internet and AI, are notoriously power-hungry. As AI models become more complex and their adoption more widespread, their energy consumption is projected to skyrocket, placing immense strain on existing power grids. While renewable sources like solar and wind are crucial for decarbonization, their intermittent nature doesn't satisfy the 24/7 "baseload" power required to keep servers running without interruption.

Blue Owl's strategic relationship represents a calculated move to secure a dedicated, clean, and constant power source for its mission-critical real estate assets. By integrating Deep Fission’s nuclear technology directly into its infrastructure planning, the asset manager is betting that advanced nuclear will be a cornerstone of the digital economy's future. A Blue Owl-managed fund also participated directly in the $80 million financing, cementing its commitment.

“We are thrilled to complete this latest funding round and to welcome Blue Owl as a new strategic relationship,” said Liz Muller, Co-Founder and CEO of Deep Fission, in a statement. “These milestones will bolster Deep Fission’s pursuit of scalable clean energy deployments and enable us to demonstrate what’s possible with next-generation nuclear technology.”

Drilling Deep for a New Kind of Nuclear

At the heart of Deep Fission's strategy is a design that merges technologies from three distinct industries. The company uses proven pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology—the most common type of nuclear reactor worldwide—but miniaturizes it into an SMR. It then proposes to place these reactors in deep boreholes, utilizing drilling techniques perfected by the oil and gas industry. Finally, it borrows heat-transfer methods from geothermal applications to move the energy to the surface where it can generate electricity.

By placing the reactor one mile underground, the company says it can dramatically reduce the surface footprint and enhance safety and security, addressing long-standing public concerns about traditional nuclear plants. This subterranean approach effectively uses the earth itself as a powerful containment structure.

The most disruptive claim, however, relates to cost. The company estimates that by leveraging established supply chains and manufacturing techniques from mature industries, it can slash construction costs by 70–80% compared to conventional, large-scale nuclear power plants. These projects are often plagued by massive budget overruns and decade-long construction timelines. Deep Fission is targeting a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) between 5-7 cents per kilowatt-hour, a figure that would make it highly competitive with fossil fuels and other energy sources. The company has over 24 pending patents protecting its unique innovations in reactor design and deployment.

From Government Backing to Commercial Pipeline

Founded in 2023 by the father-daughter team of Liz and Rich Muller, Deep Fission has moved with remarkable speed. The company’s momentum was significantly boosted in 2025 when it was selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Reactor Pilot Program, an initiative designed to fast-track the development of next-generation nuclear technologies.

This federal backing provided a crucial stamp of approval and a pathway to demonstrate its technology. In December 2025, the company announced it had broken ground on its first pilot reactor at the Great Plains Industrial Park in Parsons, Kansas. The ambitious goal is to achieve criticality—a sustained nuclear chain reaction—by July 4, 2026.

Successful demonstration in Kansas is the critical next step toward commercial deployment. The company has already announced a development pipeline representing 12.5 gigawatts of future planned deployments, indicating significant early interest from potential customers beyond the Blue Owl partnership. This pipeline suggests a burgeoning market eager for a scalable, carbon-free energy solution that can be deployed more quickly and predictably than legacy nuclear projects.

A Renaissance Fueled by Investor Confidence

The $80 million financing was supported by a syndicate of investors who see a confluence of technological innovation and market necessity. The round included participation from repeat investors Ed Eisler of EE Holdings and Mark Tompkins of Montrose Capital, who led the company’s previous financing and sponsored its reverse merger to become a public entity in 2025. Their continued investment underscores a deep-seated belief in the company's trajectory.

This financial backing is part of a broader "nuclear renaissance" in the United States. After decades of stagnation, there is renewed bipartisan support for nuclear energy as an essential tool for achieving both climate goals and energy independence. The geopolitical instability affecting global energy markets and the urgent need to decarbonize the grid have shifted perceptions, with policymakers and investors alike viewing advanced nuclear not as a liability, but as a critical national asset.

Deep Fission’s success in attracting significant capital and a high-profile strategic partner like Blue Owl places it at the vanguard of this movement. By promising a cheaper, faster, and safer way to deploy nuclear power, the company is not just building a new type of reactor; it is building a case for a future where the immense power of the atom is unlocked from deep within the earth to fuel the next technological revolution.