Family office deals slow in May with bets on nuclear batteries and AI testers

Published Thu, Jun 5 20259:00 AM EDT

Hayley Cuccinello @in/hayleycuccinello/@HCuccinello

Key Points

Nuclear energy startups are gaining steam with private investment firms of the ultra-rich.
Billionaire Barry Sternlicht's family office invested in Zeno Power, a nuclear battery firm, in May.
These deals are set to grow with family offices wanting to capitalize on the AI's power demands and President Trump's recent executive order to boost nuclear energy in the U.S.

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC's Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Starwood Capital's Barry Sternlicht made his multibillion-dollar fortune in real estate. Now he is betting on nuclear batteries through his family office, Jaws Ventures, joining a $50 million fundraise for Zeno Power in May. The startup's microwave-sized batteries provide years of energy in remote environments like deep space and the seabed by using heat from nuclear waste. The U.S. Department of Defense and NASA are customers. The Jaws investment comes as family offices have dialed back their dealmaking due to economic uncertainty, making 41 direct investments in May, down nearly 50% year over year, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by Fintrx, a private wealth intelligence platform. Nuclear energy, however, is set to gain steam with the private investment firms of the ultra-wealthy. Investing in nuclear energy is a way to tap into the artificial intelligence boom, as AI requires immense power. A UBS survey found in 2024 that 78% of family offices planned to invest in AI within the next two to three years. In February, nuclear reactor startup X-Energy garnered investment from Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective and Pittco, the family office of AutoZone founder Joseph "Pitt" Hyde. Tech giants are increasingly turning to nuclear plants for energy, including Facebook's parent company Meta, which announced a 20-year deal to buy nuclear power from Constellation Energy on Tuesday. William Blair's Jed Dorsheimer told CNBC's Carl Quintanilla that this deal was the first of many to come. "I think you're going to start to see more of these deals," he said . "We have really suppressed the most energy dense technology, to our detriment. And I think that this is going to be coming back." President Donald Trump 's executive order in late May calling to speed reactor deployment and overhaul the Nuclear Regulatory Commission may also spur investment. Family offices are finding other ways to invest in the picks and shovels of AI. In May, Jeff Bezos' family office participated in a $155 million seed round for Atlas Data Storage, alongside Joby Pritzker's Tao Capital Partners. Atlas, newly spun out from Twist Bioscience, aims to store information more efficiently and at a lower cost with a DNA-style data storage system.