Peter Thiel Joins Board of Enriched Uranium Startup General Matter

(Bloomberg) -- After more than a year searching for companies that could produce enriched uranium for the growing nuclear power sector, Scott Nolan, a partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund, decided to build his own.

His new startup, General Matter, has raised $50 million in a funding round led by the firm to make high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. As part of the deal, Founders Fund partner Peter Thiel is joining the board, an unusual move for the billionaire investor. The Los Angeles-based startup — which has been operating largely under the radar until now — aims to bolster the nation’s nuclear energy industry, and adds to the stable of Founders Fund partners who have started their own companies. 

General Matter plans to produce HALEU by enriching uranium to 19.75% — just below the 20% threshold under regulations, meaning it’s not weapons-grade. The levels  will be meaningfully higher than the 5% used in most nuclear power plants today. The company aims to help power the new generation of advanced reactors that researchers hope will come online over the next several years.

“We’re absolutely focused on costs and making this a commercial enterprise,” Nolan said. He declined to describe General Matter’s process for enriching the uranium, but said the company will focus on improving efficiency in the process. “We’re not creating new science.”

Nolan previously worked as an engineer at SpaceX before joining Founders Fund in 2011, serving as an investor until 2023 when he began working on General Matter. To found the new company, Nolan teamed up with Lee Robinson, who previously led energy investments for the Defense Department’s Defense Innovation Unit, or DIU. The duo has built up a small operation in Los Angeles of roughly two dozen engineers, nuclear scientists and safety experts, pulling staff from national labs and the private sector.

Interest in nuclear power has surged around the world in recent years. Many countries and companies are looking at atomic energy as a way to secure clean and stable electricity, particularly as demand for energy is expected to rise on back of artificial intelligence use and data center expansion. In the US, investors have backed several new companies developing next-generation reactors — such as small modular reactors — with more startups looking to bring their designs to commercialization. 

Many of the new designs use HALEU, which is difficult to come by in the US, Nolan said. Currently, only Russia and China have the capacity to mass-produce HALEU, according to the World Nuclear Association. America has limited players that enrich the fuel, such as Maryland-based Centrus Energy Corp. In an effort to ramp up production at home, the Department of Energy awarded contracts to four companies including General Matter to build out a supply chain last year.

General Matter expects to hire additional engineers and select a site to build a new enrichment facility later this year. The short list of locations includes Wyoming, Texas, Washington and Utah. It plans to break ground on the facility in 2026, and begin operating by the end of the decade. 

Over time the facility could supply enough enriched uranium to fulfil as much as two-thirds of US domestic consumption, Nolan said. He expects to raise additional capital and debt, and acknowledged the effort to scale General Matter could take years and “require billions” more capital.

Nolan said he will be “100% focused” on General Matter — he’ll stay on as a partner at Founders Fund, but won’t be “leading as many investments” and will be mostly focused on the companies he previously backed. Trae Stephens, who co-founded weapons maker Anduril Industries Inc., and Delian Asparouhov, who co-founded space manufacturing startup Varda Space Industries both serve as chairman at those companies and split their time between their startups and Founders Fund. 

Thiel, who resigned from Facebook’s board in 2022, remains on the board of Palantir, which he co-founded, but rarely takes new positions — making his board seat at General Matter more notable. 

As part of the Founders Fund investment in the firm, Stephens said he’s confident in General Matter’s team and mission, and believes the timing is right. “The government is certainly leaning into nuclear right now and that hasn’t always been the case,” Stephens said. “The whole culture has been shifting in this direction.”

(Updates 10th paragraph with details on Nolan’s Founders Fund role.)

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