Samsung C&T Bets $100M on Kairos Power — Korean EPC Capital Arrives in the US SMR Buildout
Kairos Power has brought Samsung C&T, the engineering and construction arm of Samsung Group, into the buildout of its Hermes 2 molten-salt reactor for Google. Per TechCrunch (Sept 21, 2026): "As part of the deal, Samsung C&T will make an equity investment in Kairos and provide 'in-kind' engineering services, the combination of which is worth up to $100 million" — with $70M of that an equity investment per a Kairos representative. Neutron Bytes reported the arrangement is a "binding term sheet," with Kairos leading "reactor technology, engineering, manufacturing, procurement, and construction for the nuclear island, while Samsung C&T has agreed to support selected engineering and construction activities, initially focused on power-generation systems and the balance of plant."
The strategic read: Samsung C&T "has built or helped build about a dozen nuclear reactors around the globe," and its arrival puts Korean heavy-construction capital and EPC experience behind the first advanced-reactor project in Google's plan to procure roughly 500 MW from Kairos by 2035. The 50 MW Hermes 2 demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn. — for which the NRC issued construction permits in November 2024 — is targeted for completion by 2030, and as one analysis put it, the deal "highlights the long wait behind AI-nuclear power": NRC permission to operate remains a separate, later requirement.
For the equity theme, this is supply-chain validation from outside the US: the AI-nuclear buildout is now attracting strategic industrial investors willing to take construction risk that public-market equity won't currently price — a contrast to the junior-miner equity lag documented in Uranium: Term Price Record $96/lb Confirmed by Sprott While Spot Crosses $90 — Equities Still Lag and the SMR developer drawdowns in Nuclear Equity Complex Splits: Generators Decouple From Pre-Revenue SMR Developers and Uranium Miners. It also quietly raises the competitive bar for US-listed SMR developers: the Google/Kairos pipeline now has a balance-sheet-backed EPC partner.