SK invests in Bill Gates’ TerraPower

SK Inc. and SK Innovation invested in a next-generation small modular reactor (SMR) developer, stepping up their efforts to reduce global carbon emissions. The investment is likely to provide a boost to SK Group’s strategy for the early achievement of net-zero emissions as well as group-wide efforts to build a green energy portfolio.

SK announced that SK and Bill Gates co-led $750 million in fundraising for TerraPower, a US-based SMR developer. With the close of a $250 million investment, SK has become a large shareholder of TerraPower, founded by Bill Gates. The equity investment will enable SK to join TerraPower’s nuclear reactor commercialization projects in Korea and Southeast Asia and supply carbon-free power, spearheading the shift to carbon neutrality.

Founded in 2008 by Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, TerraPower is a leading nuclear innovation company with the capability to design sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), a type of advanced nuclear reactors.

The transaction represents one of the largest-ever investments in a single company in the advanced nuclear power industry and will accelerate TerraPower’s development of innovative technologies and ongoing projects.