Samsung C&T to Invest Up to $100M in Kairos Power’s Hermes 2 Nuclear Plant
Kairos Power and Samsung C&T’s Engineering & Construction Group signed a binding term sheet on September 21, 2026 under which Samsung C&T will provide up to $100 million toward Kairos’ Hermes 2 demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, through a mix of direct investment and in-kind engineering services, subject to regulatory approvals. The deal deepens South Korean industrial involvement in a U.S. advanced-reactor developer whose electricity is already contracted to Google under a separate multi-plant agreement.
Hermes 2 is a 50-megawatt-electric demonstration plant using Kairos’ KP-FHR design — a fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor that pairs TRISO particle fuel with molten fluoride salt coolant, a combination the company says gives the reactor inherent safety characteristics that reduce reliance on active cooling systems. The plant received its construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December 2024 and broke ground in April 2026; once operating, Hermes 2 is intended to connect to the Tennessee Valley Authority grid.
Why Samsung C&T, and Why Now
Samsung C&T’s involvement is structured as both capital and construction expertise: alongside the direct investment, the company will contribute in-kind engineering services, positioning it as a potential future constructor on Kairos’ commercial-scale reactor fleet rather than a purely financial backer. “Samsung C&T’s investment and partnership reinforce the disciplined delivery model we’ve built to derisk deployment of advanced nuclear technology,” Kairos CEO Mike Laufer said in the companies’ joint announcement. Chief Technology Officer Ed Blandford said the agreement reflects that “deploying advanced nuclear energy at commercial scale requires strong, capable partners.”
The deal is explicitly conditioned on regulatory approvals — standard language for a cross-border strategic investment of this kind, and a reminder that the $100 million figure is a ceiling contingent on those approvals clearing rather than capital already committed.
The Google Connection
Kairos’ most consequential existing commercial relationship is with Google, which signed a multi-plant development agreement to purchase electricity from a fleet of Kairos reactors, including output from Hermes 2, to help meet the power demands of its data center operations. That agreement is part of a broader pattern this year of large technology companies signing direct offtake or investment agreements with advanced nuclear developers — Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have all pursued similar arrangements with various reactor developers — as AI-driven data center electricity demand growth outpaces what utilities can reliably add through conventional generation and grid expansion alone.
What KP-FHR Reactors Are Meant to Prove
Hermes 2 is a demonstration unit, not a commercial power plant in the conventional sense — its purpose is to validate the KP-FHR design’s licensing basis, construction methods and operational performance at grid-connected scale before Kairos attempts to build larger, repeatable commercial units. Advanced reactor developers broadly have argued that fluoride-salt and other Generation IV coolant designs can offer passive safety advantages over conventional light-water reactors, but none of these designs has yet operated commercially at scale in the United States, and Hermes 2’s outcome — expected to inform whether Kairos can move toward serial manufacturing of larger units — remains unproven until the plant is built and operating.
Sources
- Kairos Power, “Kairos Power and Samsung C&T Agree to Pursue Strategic Investment and Collaboration for KP-FHR Deployment,” press release, September 21, 2026 — investment structure, Hermes 2 specifications, executive quotes, regulatory conditions.
- World Nuclear News, “Samsung C&T invests in Kairos Power,” September 2026 — independent confirmation of deal terms.
- American Nuclear Society Nuclear Newswire, “Kairos and Samsung C&T partner up on Hermes 2,” September 24, 2026 — additional confirmation and context on the Google offtake relationship.
Illustrative image. Photo: Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source
