Quaise Energy: Drilling With Microwaves Toward Superhot Rock

Quaise Energy's drilling system, built on technology developed at MIT for nuclear fusion research, uses high-power millimeter waves to vaporize rock instead of grinding through it. The rig is a hybrid: "First, we use conventional rotary drilling to get to basement rock. Then, we switch to high-power millimeter waves to reach unprecedented depths." The second stage has no bit and no mechanical contact. Hot, hard granite is where conventional drilling gets expensive.

The target is superhot rock: temperatures over 300°C (572°F), at depths conventional drilling cannot reach economically. What Quaise has demonstrated so far is a hole roughly 118 meters deep at a granite quarry in central Texas, completed in July 2025, with the company stating in July 2026 that the same field system is "approaching one kilometer of depth."

What Quaise Energy Actually Is

In testimony before the U.S. House Science Committee in April 2026, CEO Carlos Araque described the company this way: "We develop geothermal power plants that generate electricity from the Earth's heat deep underground. We are both a project developer and a technology innovator."

Quaise is best known for its drilling technology, but the company rejects the drilling-contractor label. As it put it in a September 2025 post: "Quaise is not a drilling company, it's an energy company. We aim to make geothermal the workhorse of the energy transition, and we won't stop until we succeed."

Araque's testimony puts the proposition this way: "Our proprietary millimeter wave (MMW) drilling technology is designed to access superhot rock—over 300°C (572°F)—at depths and temperatures other technologies cannot reach economically."

Geothermal Rising, the industry's trade association, framed the constraint in an August 2026 article: "Conventional geothermal development typically reaches depths of about two kilometers and temperatures around 200°C." Depth and temperature track together along the geothermal gradient. Quaise's own framing, from a December 2024 release: "The Quaise approach to geothermal is unique by going hotter and deeper to significantly increase power density and worldwide accessibility."

How Millimeter-Wave Drilling Works

Quaise's April 2026 announcement of Project Obsidian gives the one-sentence version: "Millimeter wave drilling is the solution: high-power microwaves that ablate rock with zero contact."

From the company's ARPA-E teaming profile: "Our platform leverages technology developed for nuclear fusion research to generate high power levels of millimeter-wave energy that can be transmitted efficiently over long distances and applied to rock to generate dielectric heating, rapidly vaporizing the rock into metal-oxide byproducts which can then be removed or utilized."

The gyrotron

The energy source is a gyrotron — a vacuum-tube device developed for fusion research, where it heats plasma to extreme temperatures. It produces a high-power beam of millimeter waves, electromagnetic radiation in the band between microwaves and infrared.

Dielectric heating

The beam travels down the hole and strikes the rock face. Rather than heating from outside in like a flame, the electromagnetic energy makes the rock's own molecules oscillate — the same physical principle a kitchen microwave uses on water molecules, at vastly higher power. The rock heats until it vaporizes, leaving metal-oxide byproducts that can be removed from the hole or put to use.

Zero contact

Conventional drilling pushes a rotating bit against rock, and in deep, hot, hard formations, bits wear out fast — each replacement means pulling the entire drill string out of the hole and running it back in, and the trips get longer as the hole gets deeper. Geothermal Rising put the contrast directly: "Quaise Energy's millimeter-wave drilling system … removes the mechanical constraint entirely by using high-frequency electromagnetic energy to ablate rock without contact." Removing the bit removes bit failure; it does not remove everything else that can go wrong in a deep hole.

Per the company's July 2026 release, "Quaise uses a millimeter wave drilling system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to ablate rock at depths and temperatures that are not economically accessible" by other means.

What Has Actually Been Demonstrated

The company's September 2025 account of the early rungs: "Last fall we started by drilling four feet into a granite core inside our Houston lab. Then we moved right outside the lab to drill ten feet into another granite core." Then: "In May of this year the company drilled 40 feet into a granite core on a full-scale oil rig just outside of Houston owned by Nabors."

From the company's year-end 2025 review: "We took the rig from our January tests and drilled down 118 meters at a granite quarry in central Texas," adding, "We were able to drill that 118 meter hole on our first try." At a public demonstration event, per the company, "attendees peered down the record-setting hole the company completed in July. A live video camera threaded down the hole facilitated the observations, which showed a uniform hole transition from surface soil to granite." Quaise calls it "the deepest ever drilled with millimeter-waves" — a claim about its own method, and one no outside body appears to adjudicate.

Geothermal Rising — a trade association that promotes the industry, not an independent technical reviewer — described the field result in August 2026: "The system has already penetrated more than 100 meters through granite in field conditions, proving the approach works in the crystalline basement lithologies where superhot rock is found." Araque told Congress the same in April 2026: "We have successfully demonstrated our technology in field conditions, penetrating more than 100 meters through granite."

Quaise's July 2026 release states that its "millimeter wave drilling system is approaching one kilometer of depth at its Central Texas field site."

Project Obsidian: The Oregon Bet

In April 2026 Quaise announced the project it is now building: "Introducing Project Obsidian: the world's first superhot geothermal power plant." "Right now in Central Oregon," the announcement continues, "our team is pushing geothermal beyond its limits and into a whole new era."

From Quaise's July 2026 release: "Project Obsidian, where construction is currently underway, sits on federal geothermal leases in the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon, one of the most studied geothermal locations in the United States." Drilling has begun — per an August 2026 Nabors investor release, "A Nabors PACE®-B rig is currently drilling at Quaise's Project Obsidian in Oregon."

Quaise puts the plan in three phases — "Phase I: 50 MW Phase II: 250 MW Phase III: 1+ GW" — and says the project "has gigawatt-scale potential and will deliver first electrons to the grid by 2030." Nabors, which as a listed company has its own disclosure obligations, states the same roadmap in its investor release: "The planned first phase targets 50 megawatts of reliable power, with subsequent phases targeting up to one gigawatt of additional capacity."

Quaise self-describes Obsidian's goal as an engineered geothermal system: its company page says the engineering team is "developing and testing technologies to create the world's first superhot rock Engineered Geothermal System (EGS)." Nabors calls the project "intended to become the first commercial deployment of a superhot enhanced geothermal system." Engineered reservoirs differ from conventional hydrothermal fields, and our guide to geothermal power plants covers the plant types that turn the heat into electricity.

The Money: $280 Million and a Rig

Quaise's funding total moved twice in the summer of 2026, and the older figure is still circulating.

On July 7, 2026, the company announced the first close of its Series B, stating: "The Series B brings Quaise's total funding raised to date to $230 million." That round "was led by Prelude Ventures, with strategic investments from JERA and Idemitsu, two of Japan's largest energy companies" — JERA described in the release as "Japan's largest power generation company," Idemitsu Kosan as "one of Japan's largest integrated energy companies."

On August 27, 2026, Quaise announced the completed round: a total of "$180 million in equity financing, including a $35 million investment from Nabors Industries," which the release identifies as "(NYSE: NBR), one of the world's largest land drilling contractors and a long-standing partner to Quaise." Per the same release, "The Series B brings Quaise's total funding to date to $280 million." The $230 million figure is the superseded first-close total from July; $280 million is current as of August 27, 2026.

Per the release, "Nabors has also entered into a strategic framework agreement that supports Quaise's mission to make superhot geothermal a commercial reality," and "The strategic framework gives Quaise access to a dedicated land rig and Nabors' advanced platform that integrates reservoir modeling, well design, and drilling strategy."

No revenue has been disclosed. Quaise's July 2026 release says "Project-level equity and debt financing is concurrently being raised as the company advances toward first revenues secured by yet-undisclosed commercial off-take partners." The offtake partners are unnamed by the company itself, so treat any named buyer you encounter elsewhere as unconfirmed.

The Nevada Gold Mines Exploration

In December 2024, Quaise announced a partnership with the Barrick-operated Nevada Gold Mines: the two "are exploring additional decarbonization of NGM's TS Power Plant by using geothermal heat from NGM's land and subsurface holdings to hybridize on-site power generation."

Per Quaise, the partnership "marks the first commercial pilot for retrofitting a fossil fuel power plant to accommodate geothermal heat" — using geothermal heat at an existing fossil-fired plant rather than building a standalone geothermal station. Neither company has published the technical configuration that would involve. But the operative verb is "exploring." Nothing published establishes that any heat or power has been delivered to Nevada Gold Mines, and no drilling result at the site has been announced. File this one under optionality, not backlog.

Where Quaise Sits in the Geothermal Sector

Other companies are working the same problem from different angles, among them Fervo Energy — whose position we covered in our Fervo Energy stock explainer — and closed-loop developer Eavor.

Quaise self-describes the Obsidian target as a superhot EGS — engineered reservoir, artificially created flow paths — with millimeter-wave drilling meant to put that reservoir into rock over 300°C, a temperature class Geothermal Rising notes sits well beyond the roughly 2 km and 200°C that conventional development typically reaches. The thesis is invalid unless the drilling method works at depth — a different risk profile from a developer whose novelty sits in the reservoir and whose drilling is conventional.

Who Runs Quaise

From the company's current leadership page:

• Carlos Araque — President, Chief Executive Officer
• Matthew Houde — Chief of Staff
• Kevin Bonebrake — Chief Financial Officer
• Franck Monmont — Vice President, Research
• Henry Phan — Vice President, Engineering
• Trenton Cladouhos — Vice President, Geothermal Resource Development
• Geoffrey Garrison — Vice President, Operations
• Diane Hughes — Vice President, Marketing & Communications

The page identifies Araque and Houde as co-founders in their biographies.

Can You Invest in Quaise?

Not on the public markets. Quaise is privately held, with no ticker and no publicly traded stock. Its disclosed backers are venture and strategic investors: Prelude Ventures led the Series B first close, with JERA, Idemitsu, and Nabors Industries among the strategics. Nabors is itself publicly traded (NYSE: NBR), so its shares carry some indirect exposure — but Quaise is one small position inside a large drilling contractor, and buying NBR is not a way to buy Quaise.

The primary source for Quaise's corporate filings is SEC EDGAR, where private companies' securities filings, such as Form D exempt-offering notices, appear when made. Be wary of any platform offering pre-IPO access to private shares; verify anything you read against the company's own releases and federal filings.

What to Watch Next

Four checkable signals:

1. Does the Texas hole pass one kilometer? The company said "approaching one kilometer" in July 2026. A confirmed, stated crossing — better yet with logged depth and hole condition — would extend the demonstrated ladder by roughly eightfold over the quarry hole.
2. Does Obsidian's first well reach superhot rock? A Nabors rig is drilling in Oregon now. Access to rock over 300°C is demonstrated only when a well actually reaches and reports those temperatures.
3. Does anything generate electricity? Phase I is a 50 MW target with "first electrons" projected by 2030. Until a turbine spins on Obsidian heat, the plant remains a construction project, however well financed.
4. Do the offtake partners get named? First revenues depend on the "yet-undisclosed" buyers Quaise referenced in July 2026. Named counterparties with contracted volumes would convert intention into commercial fact.