America has a massive power problem. Honestly, we’ve spent decades offshoring the very things that keep the lights on, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the nuclear sector. Right now, a huge chunk of the fuel used in U.S. reactors actually comes from Russia. It’s a weird, risky bottleneck.
Enter Scott Nolan.
You might know him as a partner at Founders Fund, the venture capital giant backed by Peter Thiel. Or maybe you remember him as one of the early engineers at SpaceX who helped build the Merlin engines. Now, he’s the CEO of a company called General Matter. They aren't just another software startup trying to "disrupt" an app; they are literally enriching uranium on American soil to fix a broken domestic supply chain.
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The Nuclear Gap General Matter Is Filling
The math is pretty simple but the reality is messy. Most of our current nuclear fleet runs on uranium enriched to about 5%. But the next generation of reactors—those sleek, small modular reactors (SMRs) everyone is talking about—need something called HALEU. That stands for High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium.
It’s enriched to between 5% and 20%.
Before General Matter stepped up, Russia basically had a monopoly on this stuff. If you want to build a modern reactor in the U.S. today, you’re basically stuck asking a geopolitical rival for the gas to run it. Scott Nolan saw this gap while looking for companies to invest in at Founders Fund. He realized that the company he wanted to fund didn’t actually exist.
So he built it.
The goal is pretty bold: they want to halve the cost of enrichment. Nolan often talks about taking a "first principles" approach, the same way SpaceX did with rockets. Instead of accepting the status quo of billion-dollar government booggles, they are looking at how to make the process scalable and, frankly, cheaper.
Why Paducah and Why Now?
In August 2025, things got very real. General Matter signed a lease agreement with the Department of Energy (DOE) to take over a 100-acre site at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. This isn't just a symbolic move. The Paducah site has a legacy dating back to the 1950s.
It was the heart of American enrichment for decades.
By reviving this facility, Nolan is trying to reshore a capability we let slide into the hands of others. The DOE is backing this with a massive contract ceiling—think billions of dollars—to act as the "market maker." Basically, the government is saying, "If you make the fuel, we will buy it." This provides the stability a startup needs to build $1.5 billion facilities.
People often ask why a Silicon Valley guy is suddenly obsessed with heavy metal and centrifuges.
It’s about AI.
Data centers are eating the grid alive. If we want to lead in artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, we need baseload power that doesn't quit when the sun goes down or the wind stops. Solar and wind are great, but you can’t run a massive AI training cluster on "maybe." You need nuclear. And you can't have nuclear without fuel.
Breaking the Monopoly
The timeline for General Matter is aggressive. They broke ground in Paducah in late 2025, and they expect to be shipping fuel by the end of the decade. That sounds like a long time in "internet years," but in the nuclear world, it’s a sprint.
- Incubation: The company started inside Founders Fund.
- Funding: They raised a $50 million Series A led by Thiel himself.
- Team: They’ve poached talent from national labs, SpaceX, and Tesla.
- Mission: End the reliance on the Russian sanctions waiver that expires in 2028.
Nolan isn't doing this alone. He teamed up with Lee Robinson, who used to lead energy investments for the Defense Innovation Unit. They’ve built a team of about two dozen specialists who actually know how to handle UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) without blowing anything up.
What This Means for the Future of Energy
If General Matter succeeds, the ripple effects are huge. By lowering the cost of HALEU, they make it commercially viable for companies like TerraPower or X-energy to actually deploy their reactors. It’s the classic "shovels in a gold rush" play, but for the atomic age.
We’re talking about a future where energy is abundant and cheap.
It’s not just about security; it’s about sovereignty. Relying on a global supply chain for the most dense form of energy on earth is a strategic nightmare. Scott Nolan is betting his career—and a lot of Peter Thiel's money—that the path to a high-energy future leads straight through Kentucky.
Actionable Insights for the Sector:
If you are tracking the energy transition, keep a close eye on the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) filings for General Matter. Their ability to secure commercial licenses will be the true "make or break" moment for the stock and the tech. For investors, the play here isn't just uranium; it's the infrastructure that enables the next fifty years of American industrial growth. Support for nuclear is now a rare point of bipartisan agreement in Washington, which means the "red tape" is finally starting to thin out for companies that can actually deliver.