Khosla-backed Mazama Energy just raised $135M to drill deeper into super-hot-rock geothermal
The fresh funding will help the company develop horizontal wells in super-hot rocks capable of generating 15 megawatts of electricity per well. Mazama plans to start generating electricity sometime next year and said its first site in Oregon is capable of producing 10 gigawatts of electricity. That’s a sharp upward revision from the company’s estimate last year, when investor Vinod Khosla said the site had the potential to produce 5 gigawatts.
- ▪The fresh funding will help the company develop horizontal wells in super-hot rocks capable of generating 15 megawatts of electricity per well.
- ▪Mazama plans to start generating electricity sometime next year and said its first site in Oregon is capable of producing 10 gigawatts of electricity.
- ▪That’s a sharp upward revision from the company’s estimate last year, when investor Vinod Khosla said the site had the potential to produce 5 gigawatts.
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| Original publisher | TechCrunch |
| Canonical URL | https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/17/khosla-backed-mazama-energy-just-raised-135m-to-drill-deeper-into-super-hot-rock-geothermal/ |
| Publication time | Fri, 18 Sep 2026 00:02:36 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-18T00:03:49.638Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-18T00:03:49.638Z |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Geothermal startup Mazama Energy raised $135 million in an oversubscribed Series B, the startup said Thursday. The fresh funding will help the company develop horizontal wells in super-hot rocks capable of generating 15 megawatts of electricity per well. Mazama plans to start generating electricity sometime next year and said its first site in Oregon is capable of producing 10 gigawatts of electricity. That’s a sharp upward revision from the company’s estimate last year, when investor Vinod Khosla said the site had the potential to produce 5 gigawatts. Enhanced geothermal startups are shaping up to be the dark horse in the battle to power AI data centers and other large loads on the grid.
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