Nolan relies on his experience – and his reputation – in the Founders Fund to satisfy investors attracted by his personality and the success of SpaceX. He compared a company’s technology to a horse and its CEO to a jockey: While traditional thinking sees technology as the most important factor, that of Thiel Founders Fund anchors its investments with the founder of a company.
“I’m an investor who prioritizes the founder over the idea,” said Blake Liebermana venture capitalist who traveled to Texas to the Paducah event last month to “check out” his investment in General Matter.
“At the end of the day, it’s a team.” Liberman said. “Look how this was incubated inside the Founders, Peter (Thiel) to the board of directors, the talents they hired on the research side.
The competition
Yet General Matter joined the race late. They need to catch up with Centrus, Urenco and Orano – companies with decades of success making conventional reactor fuel – as well as the years of research and development of startup Global Laser Enrichment and the backing of nuclear giant Cameco.
While Centrus, a publicly traded company, has struggled to enrich its own uranium on a large scale since being separated from the U.S. government, its Ohio plant, upriver from Paducah, produces HALEU on a pilot scale.
“Our technology is proven, authorized by the NRC, and has been producing HALEU for almost three years,” said Dan Leistikowvice president of corporate communications at Centrus. Centrus noted recent fuel supply contracts with X-energy, Radiant Nuclear and Antares Nuclear.
Urenco – a consortium of the British, Dutch and German governments – is now the only company enriching significant quantities of uranium in the United States, and its capacity is undergoing a 15% expansion in New Mexico, expected to be completed in 2027.
French company Orano, meanwhile, plans to build a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which would be the largest investment ever in the state.
Small reactor startups like Kairos Power and TerraPower plan to launch their first commercial power plants around 2030. And those reactors may not be able to wait for an enrichment setback.
General Matter plans to begin production in Paducah before 2030. But industry insiders question General Matter’s ability to move forward as quickly as this is promising. While the company’s Paducah site is cleared and ready for initial construction, according to construction manager Chris Williamsit has not yet begun the historically long, years-long process of applying for a federal license that would allow security-related construction to begin.
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