Nuclearn closed a $10.5 million Series A round in September 2025, led by Blue Bear Capital with participation from SJF Ventures, AZ-VC, and Nucleation Capital. The funding is allocated to expanding the deployment of the company's AI platform across additional nuclear facilities.

Earlier, the company raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Arizona-focused venture fund AZ-VC. In total, Nuclearn has raised $13 million since its founding.

Nuclearn develops nuclear-specific large language models and AI tools designed to automate complex documentation and regulatory workflows at nuclear power plants. The platform is built around proprietary models, including Gamma2, a 32-billion parameter model trained on over 4 terabytes of data from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, International Atomic Energy Agency, and utility sources.

Plant operators access Nuclearn through several specialized modules. CapAI processes and categorizes condition reports, automating 80% of tasks that typically require weeks of manual effort, completing them within hours.

Engineering AI assists engineers with safety evaluations and regulatory compliance by retrieving relevant historical data and analyzing licensing impacts. AtomAssist, available as a chat interface or Microsoft Word add-in, drafts safety evaluations, licensing responses, and regulatory summaries.

The platform integrates with existing plant systems via REST APIs, connecting to maintenance management systems such as Maximo, SAP, and Oracle EAM. Users can also upload plant documents directly into the system for analysis.

All solutions are deployable in air-gapped environments within a utility's data center or on secure government cloud infrastructure, meeting nuclear security requirements such as Part 810 export controls and NEI 08-09 cybersecurity standards.

Nuclearn operates a B2B SaaS model, selling directly to nuclear utilities and plant operators. The company charges annual subscriptions per reactor, with pricing designed to reduce the high costs associated with manual regulatory and maintenance processes.

The platform employs a modular structure, enabling utilities to purchase individual AI tools such as condition report analysis, engineering assistance, or project planning as separate subscriptions. This approach allows customers to address specific operational challenges initially and expand their usage incrementally.

Nuclearn's cost structure involves substantial upfront investment in training nuclear-specific AI models using specialized datasets sourced from regulatory bodies and industry organizations. The company develops and maintains proprietary models rather than relying on general-purpose AI, resulting in higher development costs but also creating stronger competitive barriers.

The business model prioritizes security and compliance, offering both cloud-based and on-premises deployment options. The on-premises GPU appliance model supports utilities with strict air-gapped requirements and enables Nuclearn to charge premium prices for the combined hardware and software offering.

Revenue growth is driven by acquiring new reactor customers and increasing module adoption among existing customers. In 2025, the company introduced an AI Marketplace, allowing nuclear professionals to access specialized agents for specific regulatory tasks, adding new recurring revenue streams.

Major nuclear equipment manufacturers are incorporating AI capabilities into their broader service offerings. In 2024, Westinghouse introduced its Hive and bertha GenAI systems, combining decades of nuclear intellectual property with fuel and field service contracts.

GE Hitachi provides Outage Planning & Analytics and predictive maintenance tools that integrate with its installed base of reactor instrumentation. These companies package AI capabilities within long-term service agreements, creating challenges for standalone software providers to compete on individual tools.

Framatome offers Digital for Augmented Engineering and 3D outage modeling for European nuclear fleets. While these integrated players benefit from data access and established customer relationships, they may adopt pure AI innovations at a slower pace.

Atomic Canyon has developed Neutron and FERMI models, trained on Oak Ridge National Laboratory supercomputers, with exclusive access to 53 million Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents. The company has signed Diablo Canyon as a client and focuses on regulatory document search and analysis.

These specialized competitors often perform well in niche areas such as document retrieval or regulatory research but lack the comprehensive workflow automation that Nuclearn delivers across multiple plant operations.

Broader enterprise AI companies are beginning to target nuclear and other regulated industries with general-purpose automation tools. These platforms typically offer stronger technical infrastructure and greater funding but lack the nuclear domain expertise and regulatory compliance features required by utilities.

The nuclear industry's conservative culture and stringent security requirements present significant barriers for general enterprise software providers attempting to enter the market.

The March 2025 launch of Nuclearn Agents introduces workflows that chain multiple AI operations for complex regulatory tasks. The accompanying AI Marketplace functions as an app store where nuclear professionals can download specialized agents tailored to specific compliance scenarios.

These agent-based products enable Nuclearn to expand its offerings without modifying core infrastructure. Each new agent serves as a potential subscription add-on, increasing revenue per reactor.

The company's open-source SPARK-mini model fosters a developer community and creates an upgrade pathway to premium offerings. This freemium strategy establishes Nuclearn's technology as a standard within the industry while generating leads for commercial products.

Nuclearn's deployments in existing nuclear reactors provide a foundation to address the emerging small modular reactor (SMR) market. Dozens of SMR projects entering construction present opportunities for multi-year AI tooling contracts.

The 2024 DataGlance partnership illustrates how Nuclearn's AI can be applied beyond nuclear operations to other utility sectors. Fossil fuel plants, hydroelectric facilities, and grid-scale battery operators share similar maintenance workflows, potentially tripling the number of addressable facilities.

Government and defense nuclear facilities represent another growth area, with distinct regulatory requirements but comparable challenges in documentation and compliance management.

Current deployments are concentrated in North America and the United Kingdom, while major nuclear markets in France, South Korea, and Japan remain underpenetrated. France's 56-reactor fleet alone represents a substantial opportunity for expansion.

The on-premises GPU appliance model supports entry into export-controlled markets across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, where cloud-based solutions face regulatory restrictions. These regions include over 300 operating reactors that could benefit from Nuclearn's automation tools.

Regulatory capture: Nuclear utilities operate in heavily regulated environments where incumbent vendors with established regulatory relationships maintain substantial advantages. New AI tools are subject to extensive validation and approval processes, often spanning several years. This dynamic could delay Nuclearn's market entry and growth, regardless of the technical capabilities of its solutions.

Workforce resistance: Nuclear plant operations depend on experienced engineers and operators, many of whom may oppose AI automation tools that alter or replace established workflows. Adoption challenges within this traditionally conservative industry could constrain the extent to which utilities fully integrate Nuclearn's software, even after purchase.

Technical liability: AI systems providing recommendations for nuclear safety and regulatory compliance introduce significant liability risks if errors occur. A major mistake by Nuclearn's AI could trigger regulatory action, substantial financial penalties, or a loss of industry trust, all of which would be difficult to recover from in this safety-critical sector.