Kairos Power Partners with Samsung C&T on $100M Deal to Build 50MW Nuclear Reactor for Google

Advanced nuclear developer Kairos Power selected South Korean engineering and construction leader Samsung C&T to assist in constructing its 50MW Hermes 2 demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, supported by up to $100 million in combined equity investment and engineering services.
Key project specifications and strategic implications include:
• Investment Structure: Samsung C&T will provide $70 million in direct equity alongside in-kind engineering and construction expertise, leveraging its track record of delivering 10 nuclear units globally (12 GW capacity) to advance Kairos' fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (KP-FHR) design.
• Commercial Timeline: Hermes 2 is scheduled to achieve commercial operation by 2030, feeding 50MW of clean, baseload electricity into the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) grid to support Google ($GOOGL) data centers in Tennessee and Alabama.
• Hyperscaler Supply Pact: The plant represents the first commercial-scale asset under Google’s landmark 2024 master development agreement with Kairos, which targets deploying approximately 500MW of small modular reactor (SMR) capacity by 2035.
• Data Center Power Sourcing: The partnership underscores the escalating push by hyperscalers to secure direct, firm carbon-free generation to satisfy the surging, 24/7 power requirements of AI workloads without overloading regional grids.