American Supercritical has emerged from stealth with $8 million in pre-seed funding to commercialize supercritical carbon dioxide power blocks as factory-built equipment. The Denver-based company was founded by veterans of Sandia National Laboratories, Kairos Power and Exowatt. Its core mission is to provide the first real replacement for steam in 200 years by converting waste heat into electricity.
A Growing Power Challenge
The United States is building more power capacity driven by AI data centers, electrification and onshored manufacturing. Small gas turbines have captured most of that new demand, but they waste roughly a third of their fuel as exhaust heat. Around 140 gigawatts of simple cycle gas turbines operate in the U.S., holding tens of gigawatts of recoverable power.
Leadership and Investor Support
The company was founded by Simon Shuham and Matt Carlson, combining commercial and technical expertise. Carlson is a decade-long supercritical carbon dioxide veteran of Sandia, Heliogen and Kairos Power. Silent Ventures led the pre-seed round, joined by Riot Ventures, Harpoon, Reveille VC, Hillwood, Mana Ventures, Climate Capital, Alumni Ventures and other angel investors.
Management Vision
Simon Shuham, co-founder and CEO, said the company's first goal is to make wasteful simple cycle gas turbine installations obsolete. Matt Carlson, co-founder and CTO, noted that compressed timelines pushed operators toward simple cycle turbines, but wasting fuel was never the goal. Their leadership reflects deep experience across national laboratories and advanced energy startups.
How the Power Block Works
Installed at a turbine exhaust, the sCO2 system provides up to 50 percent more power with no additional fuel, no turbine modification and no re-permitting. It occupies about one-tenth the size of a traditional steam system, making retrofits far simpler for existing sites. The company says its power block converts any gas turbine into a combined cycle plant without requiring a full replacement.
Environmental and Operational Benefits
Converting the U.S. fleet would avoid about 20 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, equal to about 10 percent of the natural gas sector's emissions. The approach also supports grid reliability by capturing gigawatts of additional power that are critically needed in today's market. Operators that chose simple cycle turbines under compressed timelines can now improve efficiency without wasting fuel.
Market Positioning and Broader Applications
American Supercritical first wants to make wasteful simple cycle gas turbine installations obsolete by upgrading turbines already running instead of replacing them. The same platform extends to small modular reactors, geothermal, concentrated solar and industrial waste heat. These applications represent tens of terawatt-hours of recoverable power a year across the energy system.
Production and Hiring Plans
The company is starting operations in a 25,000-square-foot Denver facility dedicated to testing and low-volume production. Its team includes alumni from Sandia, Echogen, Hanwha, Blue Origin, Southwest Research Institute and Google X, bringing deep experience in advanced energy systems. American Supercritical is actively hiring engineers across turbomachinery and power electronics as it moves toward larger deployments.
American Supercritical is positioning supercritical carbon dioxide as the first real replacement for steam in two centuries. Its factory-built power blocks could help meet rising electricity demand while reducing emissions and avoiding the cost of replacing existing turbines. With early funding and a specialist team in place, the company is preparing to bring this technology to commercial scale.