The Department of Government Efficiency staffer who led the implementation of President Trump’s nuclear safety oversight rollbacks last year was simultaneously serving on the board of a venture capital firm backed by nuclear industry investors. He is one of multiple DOGE agents with financial ties to nuclear firms that benefited from the rollbacks, drawn from a Silicon Valley investor network that has long pushed to weaken nuclear safety regulation.
DOGE staffer Adam Blake was appointed in May to help implement Trump’s executive order to radically reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Until December, Blake simultaneously served on the board of KCRise Fund, a venture capital firm funded by multiple nuclear industry players, positioning him to influence regulatory decisions affecting its investors.
Blake served as Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s “de facto proxy” in the NRC, according to Politico E&E, helping to carry out what Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse described as a “hostile takeover” of the independent agency. By last fall, at least seven DOGE operatives were extensively involved in NRC policy decisions, leading some staff to raise concerns about their potential conflicts of interest.
The NRC rejected Sludge’s FOIA request for information about DOGE’s activities at the NRC. The agency claimed “no staff from DOGE have been detailed to the agency,” and therefore there are no records—directly contradicting the testimonies of its leadership, elected officials, news outlets, and DOGE staffer Seth Cohen’s LinkedIn account. The NRC declined to explain the discrepancy. The DOE similarly did not answer how DOGE staff were legally authorized to lead operations at the NRC if none of them were formally detailed.
Blake is not the only DOGE operative with venture capital ties to companies benefiting from the regulatory rollbacks he helped engineer. Partners of DOGE-linked VC firms, such as Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, and Andreessen Horowitz, sit on boards of nuclear startups that have been selected for new pilot programs created by the executive orders that aim to accelerate commercial licensing.
Valor’s billionaire CEO Antonio Gracias is a former senior DOGE official and recruiter, a close friend of Musk, and a top investor and board member in his companies. According to court documents and SEC filings, Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal have themselves invested millions in Valor’s funds.
Lambert here: One big happy!
Aalo Atomics’ CEO Matt Loszak credited DOGE for its instrumental role in reshaping U.S. nuclear policy in a December LinkedIn post, specifically commending Blake and two other DOGE staffers for helping create the executive orders. DOE chief counsel for nuclear policy Seth Cohen replied, “plenty more to come.”
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