• Aalo Atomics secured $100 million to develop mass-manufactured nuclear reactors.
• The startup aims to mass-produce small modular reactors to power data centers amid the AI boom.
• Valor Equity Partners led the round, with participation from Harpoon Ventures and Alumni Ventures.

One Austin-based startup may have the answer to a crucial problem that the AI industry is still stuck on: how to power it all.

Aalo Atomics says the answer isn't the hulking nuclear plants of decades past. Instead, it's betting on mass-manufactured smaller reactors built to sit beside the data centers they'll fuel.

That pitch earned the company a hefty check. Aalo recently closed a $100 million Series B, CEO Matt Loszak told Business Insider. Valor Equity Partners led the round, and Harpoon Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and others participated, bringing Aalo's total funding to north of $136 million.

The startup's trajectory shows just how tightly AI and energy are now linked. Aalo CEO Matt Loszak said he cofounded the startup "hand-in-hand" with the AI boom.

"When we started the company, we had data centers high up on our list," he told Business Insider. "Very rapidly, we were like, 'OK, we have to focus the entire company around this.'"

Loszak and Yasir Arafat, the company's chief technology officer, founded Aalo in 2023 to make mass-manufactured nuclear power plants. The company's main product is the Aalo Pod, a small modular reactor built to power data centers. Aalo says one Pod can power roughly 50,000 homes, or one data center, Loszak said.

"Nuclear really is the ultimate underdog," Loszak said. He called it "the most misunderstood technology I've ever seen in my life," citing skepticism of the safety of nuclear power.

In August, the Department of Energy selected Aalo to test the company's experimental power plant Aalo-X, which it plans to complete construction for in 2026, at Idaho National Laboratory under the Trump administration's Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program. This program aims to speed up testing of advanced reactor designs and authorize deployment at sites beyond national labs.

Aalo isn't the only company getting a boost from Washington. Ten nuclear companies—including Antares Nuclear, Radiant Industries, Valar Atomics, and Sam Altman-backed Oklo—have been tapped for the DOE's initiative.

Big Tech companies have also increasingly become interested in leveraging nuclear power to fuel AI ambitions.

Aalo plans to take its technology global

Aalo aims to eventually take its factory-built model global. In the future, Aalo hopes to mass-produce reactors in large facilities like its 40,000 square-foot Austin factory, ship them to sites around the world, and assemble them on location. Over time, Loszak said, the company hopes to work with a network of partner developers who would handle installation and operation of the Aalo Pods.

For now, the company hopes to partner with customers "willing to pay a premium because they value the speed," Loszak said, namely, cloud giants with data center projects in the works. The company declined to disclose which hyperscalers it's working with.

Aalo also plans to eventually "bring costs as low as possible to help bring more energy to everyone," Loszak said. Ultimately, it aims to cut energy costs to around three cents per kilowatt hour, though Aalo's prices are currently higher than this, Loszak said. Energy costs can vary greatly depending on location, and electricity across all sectors in the US averages about 13 cents per kilowatt hour as of May 2025, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Aalo will use the new funding to double its staff, growing from about 60 employees now to 120 within the next year. It will focus on hiring engineers and manufacturing talent. That's a sharp increase for a startup that was just Loszak and Arafat less than two years ago.

Betting on nuclear power

Loszak's interest in nuclear power is personal. He said he developed asthma while growing up in Canada due to coal-plant smog. Once the country expanded nuclear power, though, Loszak said his symptoms disappeared.

"Lo and behold, smog days went to zero, and my asthma went away," Loszak said. "I thought, 'my God, this technology is incredible.'"

Previously, Loszak cofounded Humi, an HR software startup that Employment Hero acquired for over $100 million in January.

Arafat, Aalo's cofounder and CTO, brings the nuclear chops. He started his career at Westinghouse Electric Company and later worked on MARVEL, an advanced nuclear reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory. Arafat earned his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at North Carolina State University.

"When I met him, I just knew he was the right guy to partner with. We had really similar values, a similar vision for what nuclear should become, and even a similar sense of humor, which is important because we spend a lot of time together," Loszak said of Arafat.

Loszak said Aalo's investor, Valor, is a "special partner" for the startup because of its relationships with big data center projects.

Valor backed Elon Musk's xAI in a $6 billion Series B in 2024, and the investment firm is in talks with lenders to secure up to $12 billion for xAI's plan to buy a large sum of Nvidia chips for a new mega-sized data center, The Wall Street Journal reported in July. Valor also participated in AI infrastructure company Crusoe's $600 million Series D in late 2024.

• After almost 10 years in tech, Melody Koh wants to leave the industry.
• Her first few years in tech were marked by innovation and good rewards, she said.
• But Koh believes the industry is now in a downward spiral due to layoffs and efficiency pushes.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 28-year-old Melody Koh, a product designer from Germany. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I've worked in tech for just under 10 years. The first half of my career and the second half tell completely different stories.

I built a career as a product designer working for startups, but my career has dipped since 2021.

After being laid off in May 2025, I was unemployed for over two months. In August, I landed an opportunity to work as a contractor on product design for an e-commerce company.

It's tech-adjacent, but since the focus is more on retail, I'm hoping it can help me eventually pivot away from the tech industry.

I don't want to work in tech anymore. The industry has been moving in a downward spiral, with layoffs becoming common and companies being less generous.

I don't think that the tech job market is going to get better.

I built a career in tech, focused on design

I studied experience and product design at a polytechnic in Singapore.

I was learning to design spaces and furniture, but I grew interested in digital design, such as user experience (UX) design. My tech career began with freelance work for a few start-ups during my studies. I built up my portfolio designing for apps and websites, and went on to work at tech startups after finishing my diploma in 2017.

Digitalization was a big deal at the time. I felt there would be a lot of demand for my skills and a good industry to build my career.

Between 2018 and 2022, I worked for a few startups focused on crypto and blockchains, where I learned a lot about the technology behind those kinds of products. There were always interesting design problems to solve. In 2021, I relocated to Europe, where I live now, for a fintech role.

In 2022, I lost my job due to an insolvency. After that, I worked for a data company, a Danish fintech unicorn, and then pivoted to an EdTech company, but I was laid off from the EdTech in May 2025.

The tech industry is in a downward spiral

When I first started working in tech, there was a lot of innovation and discovery around products, and I was building a lot of new things.

Nowadays, many product playbooks are already made. There are also more resources designers can implement into their own work, but it feels like you're mimicking something that already exists.

Being a designer gets diluted when you're not creating anything new.

In my experience, founders were more generous with their funding than they are now. Hard work used to be well-rewarded, but now, I don't think startup employees see good rewards.

Earlier in my career, we'd always celebrate something good happening by going for team lunches or team trips. This has been less common for me recently.

It wasn't like we got everything we wanted, but there was a work-hard, play-hard environment.

When I moved from the unicorn I was working at to my last job at an EdTech company, I took a pay cut — partly because I wanted to make an impact in the education space.

Efficiency pushes are hurting employees

I don't think changes have happened because there's less money in the industry. I think it's because companies are trying to become more efficient. They're cutting fat, and employees are getting the short end of the stick.

My friends at corporate companies get job stability, a clear career progression, and corporate discounts. They may make less money than I do, but they can use their job stability to build wealth. Meanwhile, I've been in and out of employment during my career. Since finishing my diploma in 2017, I've worked for six tech startups.

Years ago, if you weren't happy with your pay, you could leave and find another job.

It was never easy to find a job in tech — you need technical knowledge — but nowadays, it feels like the amount of talent saturation makes it harder to land roles. It's switched from an employee's market to an employer's market.

Companies overhired during COVID. I lost my job to insolvency in 2022. The industry was never the most stable, but since 2022, I feel like layoffs have become so common that it's almost impossible not to get laid off.

I'm seriously considering leaving tech

I don't regret my career in tech. I've been challenged, and I've grown a lot as a designer.

After being laid off in May, I was job-searching for three months. I applied to around 60 jobs, but received a lot of rejections before landing my current role.

I've been working on multiple side projects, including writing on Medium and starting a product studio. I plan to continue working on these in conjunction with my new job.

I'm considering what I should do next. I would probably like to focus on designing physical products instead of digital ones.

It will be difficult to convince me to work for tech companies. I don't think it's worth it.

Do you have a story to share about working in tech? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

• Trump's second term has helped fuel European spending for AI, defense, and climate startups.
• VCs and founders told Business Insider that Europe is now embracing so-called tech sovereignty.
• European startups like Mistral are focusing on developing their own AI infrastructure.

"Make Europe's tech ecosystem great again" might not fit on a Trump campaign badge, but it's something he might unintentionally be delivering on.

At least, that's what investors and founders on the continent are betting on as the US has become more protectionist with its economic policies and a less reliable ally for Ukraine.

It's spurred investors in Europe to put more capital into defense startups, and tech companies and politicians to embrace so-called tech sovereignty in areas like AI and climate.

"There's been a shift in deployment targets," Flavia Levi, a deep tech VC at Europe-based Join Capital, told Business Insider. "Now, we're talking about how money should be going into strengthening the critical technologies of Europe."

European founders and investors also sense an opportunity.

Six months into his second term, Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs and his "Big Beautiful Bill" have unsettled the US tech sector. They have slashed funding for clean energy projects, inflated manufacturing costs for hardware startups, and complicated visa requirements for global talent entering the country.

Investors are backing Europe's defense startups

Globally, defense tech has been a top focus for investors in 2025 — but especially so in Europe. Last year, defense startups on the continent raised a banner $2.4 billion, per PitchBook data. This year, they've already clinched $2.11 billion — with notable raises coming from the likes of Helsing and Quantum-Systems.

The Trump administration's unpredictable relationships with Ukraine and NATO have been "a further wake-up call for the European continent to seek military and economic independence," said Alexander Lange, general partner at VC fund Inflection. He added that it's galvanizing a whole generation of founders to pursue "meaningful challenges in energy, compute infrastructure, manufacturing, and defense."

Russia's attack on Ukraine in 2022 reminded Europe that war is a tangible reality on the continent, Matthew Wright, UK lead at defense tech startup Delian, told Business Insider.

"Trump accelerated a lot of the thinking that was in place already," Wright said. "It encouraged European governments to spend more on defense so they don't have to rely on the US or third parties."

Trump's bashing of ESG policies may have also indirectly influenced investors' approaches to European defense tech startups.

"Historically, there has not been a lot of money in defense tech, because a lot of VCs and sometimes LPs have clauses whereby they agree not to invest in defense," said Levi. Limited partners, which provide capital for VCs, have historically gravitated to companies that "tick off ESG boxes," instead of building weapons — but this has started to change, she added.

"LPs have started to change their investment thesis, and they're removing these clauses so VC funds have more freedom to invest in defense-related technologies," she said.

VCs are championing European tech sovereignty

Defense isn't the only sector getting extra investor attention in the Trump 2.0 era.

This year, European government leaders such as France's Emmanuel Macron and the UK's Keir Starmer have committed billions in funding toward national AI ventures, often around "AI sovereignty" — the idea that a country or region should have control over the governance of its AI technologies and infrastructure.

At London Tech Week in June, Arthur Mensch, the cofounder and CEO of OpenAI rival Mistral, said that trade tensions between the US and Europe had "accelerated conversations" about Europe becoming less dependent on US tech infrastructure. That same week, the Paris-based startup announced a partnership with Nvidia to establish sovereign computing infrastructure in France.

Europe has also been stepping up in response to Stargate, the US's $500 billion AI infrastructure project announced in January, Roxanne Varza, director of startup incubator Station F, previously told Business Insider.

At the February AI Summit in Paris — weeks after Trump announced Stargate in the White House — key corporations, VCs, and founders pledged to invest up to $150 billion in capital into Europe's AI ecosystem over the next five years.

It's a significant amount of capital for Europe, whose startups have long lagged behind their US counterparts when securing VC funding. Critics attribute this gap to the continent's stringent regulations and fragmented ecosystem. In 2024, startups on the continent raised $51 billion in VC funding — trailing the $190 billion secured by US startups the same year.

Trump's industrial policy is also causing ripple effects for climate startups in the US. Many are eyeing Europe as a haven for climate tech innovation and government funding at a time when federal funding for clean energy programs is being slashed.

In all, founders and VCs in Europe are banking on a "historic opportunity" to establish a more coherent identity and strategy in the global technology race, said Julien Codorniou, general partner at 20VC. "We must position ourselves as a refuge for anyone who believes in technology, science, progress, and meritocracy."

• The startup Nominal raised $20 million to turbocharge financial planning with agentic AI.
• The serial founders sold their last AI startup for $70 million.
• As the number of people becoming accountants declines, AI startups are trying to address that.

Nominal, a New York-based startup seeking to turbocharge financial planning with agentic AI, raised $20 million last month.

The AI startup is arriving at an opportune moment as the number of people becoming Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) is on the decline.

Cofounder and CEO Guy Leibovitz shared the pitch deck the team used to close its Series A. The deck showed how Nominal would use AI to address the accountant shortage and handle manual accounting labor, as the majority of accountants approach retirement and fewer people take the CPA exam.

Nominal's new round brings its total funding to $30 million. Next47 led the round, which included participation from Workday Ventures, Bling Capital, and Hyperwise Ventures. The company declined to share its valuation.

Leibovitz and Nominal's cofounder and CTO, Golan Kopichinsky, previously built another AI startup together in data security, Cognigo, which sold to NetApp for $70 million in 2019.

After the acquisition, Leibovitz saw firsthand much of the manual work NetApp's finance teams struggled with, which inspired the creation of Nominal.

Leibovitz likened Nominal to a hot $5 billion legal tech startup by calling it "Harvey for accountants and finance teams." Nominal plugs into a company's existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and helps CFOs and controllers automate tasks to reduce manual work and errors.

The company said its product can analyze financial forecasts, reconcile balance sheets, and more.

Nominal makes money by selling annual subscriptions based on usage, and Leibovitz said revenue doubled every quarter last year. Funding will go to expanding operations in North America and adding more AI agents to the product.

Nominal has 40 employees, Leibovitz said, and it has dozens of customers, including auto shop chain Jiffy Lube and business travel company GoGlobal.

Nominal isn't alone in disrupting ERP systems with AI. Earlier this month, AI startup Rillet announced it raised $70 million from Andreessen Horowitz and ICONIQ, while Campfire announced a $35 million Series A raise led by Accel in June.

Here's a look at the pitch deck Nominal used to raise its $20 million Series A. Certain slides have been edited and removed so that the deck can be shared publicly.