# Bret Kugelmass

> Bret Kugelmass is the founder and CEO of Last Energy, an Austin-based company building factory-made 20-megawatt nuclear power plants designed to be shipped, assembled, and switched on like industrial equipment rather than built on-site like cathedrals. A Stanford-trained roboticist who once helped build a lunar rover control device at NASA, he sold a drone startup, then interviewed more than 800 nuclear experts on his Titans of Nuclear podcast before concluding that the technology was never the problem - the cost of slow, custom construction was. Last Energy has raised about $164 million, closing an oversubscribed $100 million Series C in December 2025, and is racing to plug a pilot reactor into the Texas A&M-RELLIS grid by mid-2026.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Last Energy
- **Organizations:** Last Energy, Energy Impact Center, Titans of Nuclear, Airphrame
- **From:** Nassau County, New York, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** High school, Baldwin High School (Long Island, NY), BS, Mathematics, Stony Brook University, MS, Mechanical Engineering / Robotics, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Founded Last Energy, raising roughly $164 million in total to develop factory-built micro-modular nuclear plants, Closed an oversubscribed $100 million Series C in December 2025 led by the Astera Institute, Created and hosts Titans of Nuclear, conducting 800+ interviews with nuclear experts

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Earned a master's in mechanical engineering/robotics from Stanford; worked as a roboticist contributing to a Lunar Rover control device at NASA
- **2010s** — Founded and ran Airphrame, an autonomous drone/aerial-imaging company, for about five years before selling it to a customer
- **2017** — Founded the Energy Impact Center in Washington, D.C., a research nonprofit focused on reversing climate change
- **2018** — Launched the Titans of Nuclear podcast; first episode published January 8, 2018, featuring Michael Shellenberger
- **2019** — Founded Last Energy as the commercial spinout of the Energy Impact Center
- **2020** — Last Energy raised seed/Series A funding (Gigafund, First Round Capital, Floodgate)
- **2024** — Last Energy closed a $40M Series B; named to the TIME100 Climate 2024 list
- **2025** — Announced Texas A&M-RELLIS pilot (PWR-5) and plans for 30 microreactors in Haskell County, TX; closed oversubscribed $100M Series C led by the Astera Institute in December
- **2026** — Targeting mid-2026 to power the Texas A&M campus grid with a pilot reactor; first full core load of fuel scheduled to arrive September 2026

## Achievements

- Founded Last Energy, raising roughly $164 million in total to develop factory-built micro-modular nuclear plants
- Closed an oversubscribed $100 million Series C in December 2025 led by the Astera Institute
- Created and hosts Titans of Nuclear, conducting 800+ interviews with nuclear experts
- Named to the TIME100 Climate list in 2024
- Secured a microreactor pilot partnership with the Texas A&M University System at the RELLIS campus
- Signed commercial agreements covering dozens of reactors across Europe and the US, including UK projects in Wales
- Earlier exit: founded and sold Airphrame, a drone company, to a customer

## Latest updates

- **2025-12** — Last Energy announced an oversubscribed $100M Series C led by the Astera Institute, bringing total funding to about $164M; proceeds aimed at the PWR-5 pilot, PWR-20 commercialization, and Texas manufacturing.
- **2025-10** — Last Energy and the Texas A&M University System announced a microreactor pilot (PWR-5) at the Texas A&M-RELLIS campus, the company's first US deployment.
- **2025** — Announced plans to deploy roughly 30 microreactors (about 600 MW) in Haskell County, Texas to serve ERCOT-region data centers.

## Links

- Website: https://lastenergy.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bkugelmass/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/bkugelma
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWzyHh9oQuw

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/bret-kugelmass
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-14