Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII (HVII) is a SPAC — a publicly traded shell company with no operations. HVII raised $190M in its IPO in January 2025 and is tasked with finding and merging with a private company to take it public, targeting industrial technology and energy transition businesses. The $190M in IPO proceeds sit in a trust account, invested in Treasuries, while management searches for a deal. Public shareholders can redeem their shares at roughly their original investment price if they dislike the proposed deal. The sponsor — controlled by Daniel and Thomas Hennessy — receives founder shares at nominal cost representing roughly 20% of the post-IPO share count, which convert to regular equity if a deal closes, creating the sponsor's primary economic incentive. If no deal closes within 24 months, the trust is liquidated and the sponsor's shares become worthless. In October 2025, HVII announced a merger with ONE Nuclear, a development-stage energy company focused on natural gas and advanced nuclear small modular reactor (SMR) technologies, at a $1.0B valuation in an all-stock transaction. ONE Nuclear has no revenues, no assets of note, and no projects under construction. The Hennessy team has completed 13 SPAC transactions since 2014, with mixed results — Blue Bird has been a durable public company, while Canoo filed for bankruptcy and several other deals trade at fractions of their original deal prices. HVII is currently running alongside a sister vehicle, Hennessy VIII, which creates potential conflicts in deal sourcing.