Valar Atomics activated its Ward 250 nuclear microreactor on stage during a live event, where it announced its partnership with Nvidia to power an AI factory. The company plugged an Nvidia RTX desktop unit into the reactor, which was turned up to 37% of its full power to activate the Blackwell-powered PC. CEO Isiah Taylor stated that the reactor produces 100 kilowatts of thermal energy, extracted by a pressurized helium cooling loop, with hot helium flowing into a thermal electric generator to power Nvidia’s Blackwell chip. The Department of Energy says two other firms, Deployable Energy’s Unity and Antares Nuclear’s Mark-0, have also achieved criticality. AI tech giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle invested in nuclear technologies as early as 2024. Data centers have been blamed for increased power and utility costs, water consumption, and reduced quality of life, with 7 out of 10 Americans saying they do not want a data center in their backyard, leading to the delay or cancellation of at least 75 projects in just the first quarter of 2026. Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia are also working on technologies to cut down data center water use by up to 100%.