ONE Nuclear Is Selling a Gas-to-Nuclear Bridge for Data Centers. It Wants to Go Public. 

Startup ONE Nuclear Energy went before investors this week with a pitch built for this moment in the AI boom: do not wait for the grid, and do not wait for nuclear power.

Build gas generation beside data centers now, collect revenue, then use the same sites and customer relationships to introduce small modular reactors later.First, it has to complete its merger with Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII — a special-purpose acquisition deal taking it public. Hennessy shareholders are scheduled to vote Aug. 24, on the $1 billion, all-stock deal. If approved and other conditions are met, Hennessy would become ONE Nuclear Energy Inc. and trade on Nasdaq as ONEN. 

The company originally advertised up to $210 million in gross proceeds, although the final amount depends heavily on shareholder redemptions and financing.

“While our ultimate vision and destination is delivering sustainable carbon-free energy through small modular reactors, through nuclear projects, we recognize that our customers, particularly hyperscale data center operators, need massive power today,” CEO Richard Taylor said during the investor call.

Even though its core nuclear projects will require years of lead time, ONE Nuclear’s public outreach appears aimed at striking while the iron is hot. The Trump administration is working to fast-track nuclear licensing, and data-center developers are increasingly planning to pair their resource needs with nuclear power.

ONE Nuclear says gas reciprocating engines can arrive within roughly 12 months, compared with multiyear waits for large turbines. 

It is targeting behind-the-meter power contracts at about $95 per megawatt-hour, above normal wholesale prices. At a modeled one-gigawatt site, it projects $660 million in annual revenue and $361 million in site EBITDA. 

Its two priority projects remain works in progress. An East Texas site of more than 1,000 acres is being discussed with a national data-center developer for one gigawatt of gas generation by 2028, followed by SMRs. A 6,000-acre New Mexico site is under a nonbinding letter of intent and could begin at one gigawatt before expanding toward 10. Neither site has a signed power-purchase agreement, according to the company’s presentation.

Unlike reactor developers, ONE Nuclear says it will not bet the company on one design. Its menu includes Rolls-Royce SMR, GE Vernova’s BWRX-300 and Westinghouse’s AP300, plus TerraPower and X-energy reactors. That flexibility may reduce technology risk, but it does not eliminate licensing, supply-chain or construction risk. Collaborations with Rolls-Royce Solutions America and Black & Veatch leave terms to be negotiated later.

That distinction matters. ONE Nuclear was formed in February 2025, and its SEC prospectus says it has nominal assets, no operating history, no revenue and no projects under construction. 

The SPAC money is meant to move priority sites toward signed contracts and finance $20 million to $50 million of pre-construction work per site; project debt would fund most construction after final investment decisions.

The company acquired Amino Sustainability Group, adding Christopher Hansmeyer as development chief. It has nominated Microsoft energy executive Darryl Willis and former Exelon executive Kyle Crowley as independent directors, effective after the SPAC closes. Its advisors include Chris LaCivita, President Trump’s former campaign manager. Existing ONE Nuclear owners are rolling all their equity into the combined company.

ONE Nuclear is entering an SMR market that is growing more real—and more crowded. The NRC issued Bill Gates-backed TerraPower a construction permit in March and accepted Holtec’s early-work application for two SMR-300 units. In May, the Energy Department awarded eight companies more than $94 million to advance light-water SMR deployments, supply chains and sites.

But the sector still punishes optimism. NuScale Power, a small modular reactor developer, saw its Idaho project—the Carbon Free Power Project, planned with a Utah municipal power consortium at Idaho National Laboratory—collapse in 2023 after the government spent about $183 million, a DOE inspector-general audit found. 

ONE Nuclear is trying to avoid waiting for that industry to mature by earning gas revenue first. Monday’s shareholder vote decides whether public investors will finance that bridge.