Y Combinator's newest Demo Day featured a batch skewed heavily toward deep tech, with startups like Atomarine pitching nuclear-powered floating data centers and Dipole Labs building optical networking hardware to cut power waste in AI clusters. TechCrunch surveyed early-stage investors who named nine companies that got flagged repeatedly as the standouts of the cohort. Investors noted the technology felt futuristic, but valuations across the batch were more restrained compared to recent quarters.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-13
Google has agreed to buy roughly 50% of the electricity generated by a nuclear power plant, according to reports. The deal reflects the company's push to secure reliable, carbon-free power to run its data centers and AI operations.
bbc.com
· 2026-09-11
The US Department of Energy has issued a $1.9 billion loan guarantee to support restarting a nuclear power plant tied to a deal with Google. The financing is meant to help bring the previously shuttered reactor back online to supply carbon-free electricity for growing data center demand.
hardware.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-09
NextEra Energy has received a $1.9 billion federal loan to refurbish the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, a nuclear plant shuttered since 2020 that Google pledged to help revive last October. The plant is slated to restart in 2029, with Google reportedly planning up to six data centers nearby, while only 50 megawatts of output will go to the local power cooperative.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-08
NextEra Energy has received a $1.9 billion loan from the US Department of Energy to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center, a 615-megawatt nuclear plant in Iowa that was shut down after storm damage in 2020. Google will buy power from the reopened plant to run its AI data centers, with NextEra targeting a restart by 2029 and citing job creation and grid reliability benefits.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-08
A former commercial nuclear power operator who rose from Reactor Operator to Senior Reactor Operator and into management left his 19-year utility career at 38, relocating from Michigan to Washington, D.C. to chase 'unlimited income potential' through sales and business ownership. He found that the skills that made him excel as an employee inside a large organization did not translate into success running his own venture.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-04
Nature.com published a compilation summarizing five notable developments in nuclear-power research, though the underlying content was inaccessible due to browser compatibility restrictions. The page redirected visitors to a stripped-down, styleless version of the site rather than displaying the actual research summaries.
nature.com
· 2026-08-26
Researchers and policymakers are advancing new approaches to nuclear waste disposal, including deep geological repositories and advanced reprocessing techniques, as governments seek durable solutions for spent fuel that has accumulated for decades. The effort comes amid renewed global interest in nuclear power as a low-carbon energy source.
nature.com
· 2026-08-26
Between late 2016 and August 2026, China brought 27 new nuclear reactors online, while the United States added only two in the same period. MIT nuclear engineering professor Jacopo Buongiorno notes that China has become the global leader in building nuclear power plants, part of a broader strategy to support its shift toward a fully renewable grid.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-08-23
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