Kairos Power secures up to $100M from Samsung C&T for Google reactor

September 21, 2026 at 11:23 PM2 min

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Kairos Power has selected Samsung C&T to help build its 50-megawatt demonstration reactor for Google, with the engineering firm providing an equity investment and in-kind services worth up to $100 million. Samsung C&T will invest $70 million in equity and provide engineering services as part of the deal. The reactor is expected to be completed by 2030.

Key Facts

Samsung C&T will make an equity investment of $70 million in Kairos Power and provide in-kind engineering services worth up to $30 million.
Kairos Power is building two reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Hermes 1, a low-power demonstrator, and Hermes 2, its first commercial-scale reactor.
Hermes 2 is expected to begin operating in 2030, in line with Kairos Power's original agreement with Google.
Google signed a deal with Kairos Power in fall 2024 to build nuclear reactors capable of generating about half a gigawatt of electricity by 2035.

Samsung C&T Investment

Kairos Power has picked engineering firm Samsung C&T to help build its 50-megawatt demonstration reactor for Google. Samsung C&T will make an equity investment in Kairos and provide in-kind engineering services, the combination of which is worth up to $100 million. The equity investment will make up $70 million of the total, a Kairos spokesperson told TechCrunch. Samsung C&T has built or helped build about a dozen nuclear reactors around the globe.

Hermes Reactor Development

Kairos is currently building two reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Hermes 1, a low-power demonstrator, and Hermes 2, its first commercial-scale reactor. Output from Hermes will count as the first 50 megawatts of its deal with Google. The startup received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build the reactors in November 2024. Hermes 2 will be a fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor, a design that has been floated for years but never built at commercial scale. Kairos is also using a relatively new form of nuclear fuel known as TRISO, which encapsulates tiny seeds of uranium fuel in layers of ceramic and carbon.

Google Agreement Timeline

Google first signed a deal with Kairos Power in fall 2024, calling on the company to build nuclear reactors capable of generating about half a gigawatt of electricity by 2035. Kairos expects Hermes 2 to begin operating in 2030, in line with its original agreement with Google. The startup has about five years to get its first power plant up and running, which is an accelerated but manageable timeline in the nuclear industry. To fulfill the terms of its deal with Google, Kairos will need to move even faster on subsequent reactors, something Samsung C&T might be able to help with.