Key points
- Nuclear energy startups gain steam with private investment companies.
- The family office of the billionaire Barry Sternlicht invested in Zeno Power, a nuclear battery company in May.
- These transactions should grow with families who wish to capitalize on the AI of power requests and the recent decree of President Trump to stimulate nuclear energy in the United States
A version of this article appeared for the first time in Inside Wealth Newsletter of CNBC with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the investor and consumer with high shuttle. Register to receive future editions, directly in your reception box. Barry Sternlicht of Starwood Capital has made his fortune of several billion dollars in real estate. Now, he bet on nuclear batteries through his family office, Jaws Ventures, joining a fundraising of $ 50 million for Zeno Power in May. The startup microwave batteries provide years of energy in remote environments such as deep space and the seabed using the heat of nuclear waste. The US Department of Defense and NASA are customers. The investment of the jaws occurs while family offices reported their transaction due to economic uncertainty, making 41 direct investments in May, down almost 50% of one year on the other, according to data provided exclusively at CNBC by FINTRX, a private wealth intelligence platform. Nuclear energy, however, should gain steam with private investment companies in ultra-rich. Investing in nuclear energy is a means of drawing from the boom of artificial intelligence, because AI requires immense power. A UBS survey revealed in 2024 that 78% of family offices planned to invest in AI in the next two to three years. In February, the startup of X-Energy nuclear reactors collected investments from the CEO of Citadel, Ken Griffin, of the Emerson collective by Laurene Powell Jobs and Pittco, the Family Office of Autozone Joseph “Pitt” Hyde. Technology giants are increasingly turning to energy power plants, including Facebook Meta's parent company, which announced on Tuesday a 20 -year agreement to buy nuclear energy from Constellation Energy. Jed Dorsheimer de William Blair told Carl Quintanilla de CNBC that this agreement was the first of many to come. “I think you will start to see more of these offers,” he said. “We have really removed the densest energy technology, to our detriment. And I think it will come back.” President Donald Trump's decree at the end of May calling for the deployment of reactors and revising the nuclear regulation committee can also stimulate investments. Family offices find other ways of investing in the choices and shovels of AI. In May, Jeff Bezos' family office participated in a $ 155 million seed round for the storage of Atlas data, alongside Tao Capital Partners of Joby Pritzker. Atlas, newly from twist bioscience, aims to store information more efficiently and at a lower cost with a DNA style data storage system.