Venture capital is doubling down on the physical infrastructure of AI, betting that nuclear energy and custom chips will underpin the next wave of trillion-dollar compute demand.

Evidence For

• Sequoia Capital led a $1 billion Series B for nuclear startup Valar Atomics, valuing the company at $6 billion — a bet that small modular reactors can power data centers.
• London-based AI chip startup Olix raised a $312 million Series B, tripling its valuation to...