Oklo & X-Energy Collaborate with Tech Giants in $200M Nuclear Initiative for AI Data Centers
Nuclear energy startups Oklo and X-Energy are poised to collaborate with tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia. This partnership is part of an initiative led by the Trump administration. The goal is to expedite the construction of new power plants for artificial intelligence data centers. This information comes from a report published by Bloomberg on Tuesday. An official announcement is anticipated as early as Wednesday, July 23.
The initiative has an estimated budget of $200 million. It seeks to address the growing concern that the rapid expansion of data centers, which power the AI boom, has driven up electricity prices across the United States. Nuclear power has surfaced as a prime solution to AI’s increasing energy needs. It provides large amounts of continuous baseload power without direct carbon emissions.
Shares of both Oklo (NYSE: OKLO) and X-Energy experienced a surge of approximately 4% in after-hours trading following the Bloomberg report. Oklo specializes in small modular reactors (SMRs) — compact nuclear plants that can be situated next to data center infrastructure. These SMRs have lower construction costs and faster build times than conventional large-scale nuclear plants. According to the International Energy Agency, electricity demand from global data centers could more than double by 2030, reaching nearly 945 terawatt-hours annually.
Source: Benzinga – Oklo, X-Energy Shares Jump as Trump Program Targets Nuclear Power for AI