Oklo, the advanced nuclear fission company chaired by Sam Altman, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
The company, which has not yet generated any revenue, went public through a special purpose acquisition company called AltC Acquisition Corp., which was founded and led by Altman.
On Friday morning, the stock was trading just over $15 under the ticker symbol “OKLO.” Upon completion of the transaction, Oklo will receive gross proceeds of more than $306 million, according to a press release.
Oklo’s business model is based on commercializing nuclear fission, the reaction that fuels all nuclear power plants. The company aims to use micro-nuclear reactors installed in A-frame structures, rather than traditional reactors.The goal is to sell energy to end users, e.g. United States Air Force and big tech companies.
Oklo is currently building the first small reactor in Idaho that could eventually power the type of data centers OpenAI and other AI companies need to run their AI models and services.
Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, said he believes nuclear energy is one of the best ways to solve the problem of growing demand for artificial intelligence and the energy source to power the technology without relying on fossil fuels. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have also invested in nuclear power plants in recent years.
Altman told CNBC in 2021: “I don’t think there’s a way we can do this without nuclear power. I mean, maybe we can do it with just solar and storage. But from what I’ve seen From my perspective, I think this is the best choice.
Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte confirmed in an interview with CNBC on Thursday that the company has not yet generated revenue and has not yet deployed nuclear power plants. He said the company aims to have its first factory online in 2027.
Going the SPAC route is risky. So-called reverse mergers became popular during the low-interest-rate period of 2020 and 2021, when tech stock valuations soared and investors sought growth rather than profits. But the SPAC market imploded in 2022 as interest rates rose, and it has yet to recover.
On the other hand, artificial intelligence-related companies are the new favorites of Wall Street.
“SPACs haven’t had the best performance over the past few years, so for us, the results we achieve here will obviously depend on the work we put in and what we’re building,” said Devitt, the company’s co-founder in 2013. (DeWitte) said, “The fact is, the market sees an opportunity. “I think it’s in the nuclear power, artificial intelligence, data center push and the energy transition part. “
The company has also suffered regulatory setbacks. In 2022, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission rejected Oklo’s application to build a reactor in Idaho. The company has been developing a new application and plans to submit it to the NRC by early next year, DeWitte said, adding that it is currently in the “pre-application engagement” phase with the commission.
Altman joined Oklo while serving as president of startup incubator Y Combinator. Oklo joined the program in 2014 and previously earlier meeting Between Ultraman and DeWitt. In 2015, Altman invested in the company and served as chairman.
This isn’t Ultraman’s only foray into nuclear power or other infrastructure that could fuel the massive growth of artificial intelligence.
In 2021, Altman led a $500 million financing round for Helion, a clean energy company focused on the development and commercialization of nuclear fusion. Helion said in an article blog post At the time, the capital was to build the Polaris Power Demonstration Generator, “which we expect to demonstrate net power from nuclear fusion in 2024.”
Altman did not respond to a request for comment.
Altman has also invested heavily in chip development and investment in recent years, which may help power the artificial intelligence tools OpenAI builds.
Just before he was briefly fired as OpenAI CEO in November, he It is said Seeking billions of dollars for the chip company code-named “Tigris”, and finally with Nvidia.
Altman invested in Rain Neuromorphics, a new artificial intelligence chip startup, in 2018, which is located near OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters. The next year, OpenAI signed a letter of intent to purchase Rain’s chips for $51 million. In December, the United States forced a Saudi Aramco-backed venture capital firm to sell its stake in Rain.
DeWitte told CNBC that the data center represents “a very exciting opportunity.”
“We’re seeing a lot of interest in artificial intelligence,” he said. “The AI computing needs are huge. It opens up a lot of different ways for how people think about designing and developing AI infrastructure.”
watch: Investing in the future of artificial intelligence
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