> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://nexi.fund/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Aalo Atomics just proved factory-built nuclear can go critical - URL: https://nexi.fund/aalo-atomics-criticality-2026/ - Published: 2026-09-04T13:00:23.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-04T13:00:23.000Z - Description: Four reactors went critical before the July 4 deadline. Aalo Atomics was the fourth — and the one built explicitly for the AI data center business. - Author: Nexi.fund Labs - Tags: Energy & Climate, #mode-2, #hook-statistic, #track-E, #brand-heavy Four reactors went critical before the July 4 deadline. Aalo Atomics was the fourth, and the one built explicitly for the data center business. The milestone happened at Idaho National Laboratory, where its Critical Test Reactor achieved initial criticality on the morning of July 4\. The reactor is the first new one built at INL in fifty years. It is also a full-scale proof that a factory-made nuclear core can run: the same 10 MWe reactor design the company plans to ship inside every product it sells. ## The test reactor that proved the factory Aalo Atomics was founded in Austin in 2023, two years before the Department of Energy picked it as one of 11 companies in its Reactor Pilot Program. The program's target was blunt: at least three advanced reactors had to reach criticality by July 4, 2026\. Four did. Antares Nuclear's Mark-0 went first in early June, Valar Atomics' Ward 250 followed, Deployable Energy's Unity hit it on July 1, and Aalo closed the set. "The hardest problem in nuclear was never the physics, our country simply forgot how to build," the company's president and chief technology officer, Yasir Arafat, said in the announcement. Criticality validated the supply chain, the control systems and the fueling procedure at commercial scale, he added. What matters next is on the factory floor. The company is expanding into a one-million-square-foot facility in Austin, an assembly line for reactors rather than a construction site. It frames the shift as the nuclear equivalent of what Ford did to car production: ship parts, assemble on-site, repeat. ## A 50 MWe pod for the AI trade The product is the Aalo Pod: five 10 MWe reactors sharing turbines in a single 50 MWe plant, designed to sit next to an AI data center and deliver power in a footprint of under five acres. It is sodium-cooled, needs no external water source, and every module fits on a standard truck. That design choice targets a specific problem. Data center operators waiting years for a grid connection, or for a gigawatt-scale reactor built to conventional timelines, can instead contract for 50 MWe blocks that install in months. Capacity scales by adding pods, not by redesigning plants. ## Crusoe signs up for the first nuclear AI factory The first customer signal came on July 30, when Crusoe and Aalo announced a strategic partnership to build the first nuclear-powered AI factory. Crusoe, the vertically integrated AI infrastructure provider, will run a Spark modular data center at Idaho National Laboratory powered by its reactor in 2027 as a proof of concept. The two companies intend to deploy Aalo Pods at additional Crusoe sites by the end of 2029. "We are now the only nuclear technology company to design and build a reactor fueled to produce 10 MW of electricity," said Aalo chief executive Matt Loszak. The company has raised more than $136 million to date, with investors including Valor Equity Partners, Hitachi Ventures and NRG Energy. ## Four out of eleven On September 3, the chief executives of Antares, Valar and Aalo testified before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee on advancing next-generation nuclear. The hearings are part of a broader pattern: the economics of nuclear power in America have shifted from the physics problem to the manufacturing problem. As we wrote in August, the real money is being placed on the nuclear factory floor, not on individual reactor designs. Its bet is that the winning factory will be the one that makes reactors as products rather than projects. The criticality milestone bought it a seat at that table, and the Crusoe deal gives it a customer to build for. The reactor worked. Now the factory has to. [ WATCH: Advanced Nuclear Reactors Take Center Stage on Capitol Hill DOE's overview of the House Science Committee hearing where Aalo, Antares and Valar CEOs testified on the Reactor Pilot Program's criticality milestones. US Department of Energy ](https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDOEONE/bulletins/427fb80?ref=nexi.fund) Primary source for the September testimony and the DOE program context. [ Criticality for fourth US microreactor to meet 4 July deadline World Nuclear News report on Aalo's criticality, the 1M sq ft factory plan and Project Ascension, with direct quotes from Aalo and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. World Nuclear News ](https://world-nuclear-news.org/articles/criticality-for-fourth-us-microreactor-meets-deadline?ref=nexi.fund) Independent confirmation of the July 4 milestone and the factory-scale next step. [ Crusoe and Aalo Atomics to Build Nuclear-Powered AI Factory Crusoe's announcement of the partnership to deploy the first nuclear-powered AI factory, with the 2027 proof of concept and 2029 pod deployment plan. Crusoe ](https://www.crusoe.ai/resources/newsroom/crusoe-and-aalo-atomics-form-strategic-partnership-with-goal-of-deploying-first-nuclear-powered-ai-factory?ref=nexi.fund) Primary source for the commercial partnership and Aalo's funding history.