Quaise Energy, an MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) spinout developing drilling technology to access superhot geothermal energy, raised $180 million in a series B round of venture capital, bringing the company’s total funding to $280 million.
This new investment will fund the company’s Project Obsidian, a commercial superhot geothermal plant that Quaise is building near the Newberry Volcano in central Oregon. Quaise is developing a drilling system that company founders expect will make accessing geothermal energy easier than can be done with conventional drilling technology. Quaise’s system centers around a device called a gyrotron, which produces millimeter waves that are used to bore through rock at depths that would destroy conventional drill bits.
CEO Carlos Araque ’01, SM ’02 co-founded Quaise with Matt Houde in 2018. The company is commercializing an idea that Paul Woskov, a research engineer in MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, first proposed in 2008—using the gyrotron, a device that had been used in fusion research and manufacturing for decades, to instead access geothermal energy.
In July 2025, Quaise used its technology to successfully drill a 118-meter hole in a Texas field. The company held additional public demonstrations of its drilling technology in fall 2025. Earlier tests had been done under controlled experimental conditions.
Quaise’s new funding came in two tranches this summer, with $134 million announced in July and the rest announced last week. The first tranche was led by Prelude Ventures and included investments from Japan-based power generation company JERA and Japan-based petroleum refiner Idemitsu Kosan. Nabors Industries, a drilling contractor, invested $35 million in Quaise as part of the second tranche. Nabors and Quaise already had an existing relationship, and this investment includes an agreement that provides Quaise with access to Nabors’ drilling expertise.