Quaise Energy Closes $180 Million Series B With Nabors and JERA Backing
Nabors Industries and Japan's JERA joined the $180 million round, giving Quaise industrial drilling credibility ahead of its first superhot geothermal plant in Oregon.
Quaise Energy completed the final close of its Series B during the week of August 31, raising $180 million in total equity financing, with $35 million contributed by oilfield drilling heavyweight Nabors Industries. The Houston-based startup is developing superhot geothermal power using millimeter-wave drilling technology. Its total company funding reached $230 million following the Series B's first tranche announcement on Tuesday (2026-07-07), per Canary Media's reporting.5,2
Nabors' contribution goes beyond the dollar figure. Superhot geothermal drilling, targeting rock at temperatures and depths well beyond conventional geothermal thresholds, demands engineering precision that oil and gas contractors are better positioned to deliver than most clean energy venture funds. A driller of that scale brings operational know-how that a term sheet alone cannot supply.5
Japan's JERA, through its venture arm JERA Ventures, also participated in the round. The two companies are exploring deployment of Quaise's technology in Japan, where domestic energy resources are limited and LNG import costs run high, with JKM Asian LNG spot at $27.76/MMBtu on September 16. Any geothermal capacity that reduces Japan's dependence on fuel imports carries strategic value that extends beyond a standard clean energy investment.3
Project Obsidian, Quaise's first planned commercial plant in central Oregon, already has a power-purchase agreement signed for an initial 50 megawatts with an undisclosed customer. The company is working to contract an additional 200 megawatts of future capacity and is pursuing $100 million in grants and debt financing alongside the Series B equity.2
The technology has no commercial-scale precedent. Quaise proposes to use gyrotron-generated millimeter waves, the type developed for fusion reactor research, to vaporize rock far deeper than conventional rotary drilling can reach economically, accessing heat intense enough to generate steam without requiring proximity to volcanic hotspots. Project Obsidian would be the first facility to test this at grid scale — all the execution risk of a first-of-kind project applies, regardless of the PPA or the fundraising total.2,5
The capital markets have begun pricing the sector's potential ahead of commercial proof. Fervo Energy became the first next-generation geothermal firm to list publicly in May (2026-05), netting roughly $1.9 billion, a pricing event that shifted how institutional investors read geothermal risk.2
The baseline the sector is building from remains thin, though. The United States operates about 4 gigawatts of geothermal capacity across 99 plants, more than half concentrated in California, collectively supplying 0.4% of total national electricity generation. Geothermal accounts for approximately 1% of global renewable electricity output.4,1
The bullish case rests on the scale of the untapped resource. Researchers estimate that extracting heat from just 1% of the world's superhot rock formations could meet total global electricity demand eight times over. That reflects the physical resource accurately. It says nothing about the cost at which that resource can be accessed commercially, and no project at scale has established that number yet.1
Demand pressure from AI infrastructure build-out is sharpening investor interest. Hyperscalers need firm, dispatchable, low-carbon power in volumes that intermittent renewables struggle to supply reliably, and next-generation geothermal fits that specification in theory. But the AI demand case accelerates the timeline on which Quaise needs to demonstrate commercial cost performance, not just drilling capability.5
Project Obsidian's drilling results will be the first hard test. If Quaise can reach target depths on schedule and at a levelized cost the Oregon PPA counterparty can absorb, the technology moves from well-funded hypothesis to something power buyers can price with confidence. If it cannot, the $180 million buys a data point rather than a platform.2,5