Overview
- Antares closed a $470 million Series C on Monday, July 27, 2026, consisting of roughly $370 million in equity and $100 million in debt led by Paradigm and Caffeinated Capital.
- The company reached reactor criticality at Idaho National Laboratory in June 2026, demonstrating a self‑sustaining fission reaction that produced energy but did not generate grid electricity.
- Antares says its next step is a Mark‑1 design meant to produce electricity by 2027 and that it plans to install units at U.S. Air Force bases beginning in 2028 to meet a Pentagon timeline.
- The R1 microreactor is sized to supply about 100 kWe to 1 MWe, run for more than six years without refueling, and be built at a vertically integrated Torrance facility with a target of about ten units per year.
- Key challenges remain including regulatory approvals, site work and proving production‑scale reliability, but backers and the Pentagon view the reactors as a way to cut fuel convoys and boost power resilience at remote bases.