Quaise Energy Closes $180 Million Series B With Nabors Industries as Lead Industrial Backer
Drilling heavyweight Nabors Industries put in $35 million, and Japan's JERA Ventures joined, funding Quaise's first commercial superhot geothermal plant in Oregon.
Quaise Energy completed the final close of its Series B around Wednesday (2026-09-02), raising a total of $180 million in the round. Drilling company Nabors Industries contributed $35 million, the most prominent single commitment disclosed. "We are unlocking the most powerful clean energy source on Earth, and the Series B signals deep conviction across a wide range of investors," company management said in announcing the close, according to oilprice.com.5
That puts an incumbent in the conventional drilling industry behind a startup whose technology vaporizes rock with millimeter-wave energy rather than cutting it mechanically. Nabors operates one of the world's largest land-drilling fleets. Its investment in a potential successor to that technology is either a hedge or a bet on which approach wins at depth.5
The round had been accumulating since early July. On Tuesday (2026-07-07), Quaise announced a first tranche of $134 million, reporting at the time that cumulative funding across all rounds had reached $230 million. The final close in early September (2026-09-02) added a further $46 million to the Series B total.2,5
Project Obsidian, planned for central Oregon, is the target for the capital. Quaise has signed a power-purchase agreement for 50 megawatts with a buyer it has not publicly identified, and is negotiating additional contracts for up to 200 megawatts of future output. Alongside the equity, the company is pursuing $100 million in grants and debt to fully fund the project.2
JERA Co. joined the round through its JERA Ventures corporate venture arm, with the firm describing the investment as support for next-generation superhot geothermal technology development. The two companies plan to explore deploying the technology in Japan, potentially opening a second market for the drilling system beyond its US base.3
The timing places Quaise's close inside a broader acceleration of capital into next-generation geothermal. Fervo Energy, which uses advanced horizontal drilling rather than millimeter-wave methods, went public in May 2026 and raised approximately $1.9 billion — the first IPO from that company cohort. Oilprice.com reported that AI-driven power demand growth has pushed the sector into an all-of-the-above energy development approach, with enhanced geothermal drawing capital and policy attention as a result.2,5
But installed capacity tells a different story from the investment headlines. The United States holds around 4 gigawatts of geothermal capacity across 99 plants, supplying 0.4% of total US electricity as of mid-2026, according to Canary Media. Globally, geothermal produces roughly 1% of renewable electricity output.4,1
Researchers cited by RenewEconomy have estimated that accessing just 1% of the world's superhot rock formations could theoretically supply global electricity demand eight times over. Quaise's technology is designed to reach those formations at commercial scale. No such plant exists yet.1
The $100 million in grants and debt Quaise still needs for Project Obsidian is the harder piece of the financing picture than the equity round. Debt providers and offtake counterparties for the remaining 200 megawatts require a different standard of evidence from a company that has yet to build a commercial plant, and those conversations are now the central task.2