The $17bn nuclear start-up without any revenue

A nuclear technology company backed by Sam Altman is riding a wave of investor enthusiasm
Publicly-listed Oklo sits at the intersection of two hot areas for Wall Street: artificial intelligence and energy companies. This year alone, Oklo’s share price has jumped more than 400 per cent. But the business hasn’t generated any revenue. It hasn’t built a nuclear reactor, and it hasn’t secured any binding contracts with customers. The FT’s US energy editor Jamie Smyth explains the enthusiasm for Oklo, its links to the Trump administration and whether it can live up to the hype. company backed by Sam Altman is riding a wave of investor enthusiasm.

Clips from New York Stock Exchange, The White House, a16z – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – For further reading: Inside Oklo: the $20bn nuclear start-up without any revenue US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts Donald Trump’s assault on US nuclear watchdog raises safety concerns

Subscribers only –https://www.ft.com/content/d87cb0ac-b599-46b9-8a4d-9a8b55541ab2

TRANSCRIPT – Michela Tindera speaks to Jamie Smyth

Nov 5 2025 Audio transcript of podcast.

“……………………………. Jamie Smyth
Oklo’s valuation soared to more than $25bn in just 18 months, and this really caught my eye. I’ve been tracking quite a lot of these smaller nuclear companies over the last 18 months, but nothing had reacted like this.

They want to power the artificial intelligence revolution using nuclear energy, but a new type of nuclear energy, which hasn’t been in use to date in the commercial nuclear world.

Michela Tindera But here’s the thing. This high-flying start-up Oklo, it doesn’t have revenues, licenses to operate, nor does it have any contracts with customers. So what’s going on with this company? That is what Jamie and our colleagues have been digging int

Jamie Smyth Oklo has become a symbol of the AI boom and the ongoing nuclear renaissance because of the astonishing rise in the value of its shares and its close relationship with the Trump administration. How the company fares could have a big influence in whether nuclear energy powers this AI revolution.

Michela Tindera
I am Michela Tindera from The Financial Times. Today on Behind The Money, is Oklo’s promise justified, or is it just riding the wave of AI hype?

Jamie Smythe…………………………………………………………..
So Oklo started in 2013 by a couple called Jacob and Caroline DeWitte……………. back in 2013, they met Sam Altman of OpenAI fame …………………….he decides to invest in Oklo………………….He later agrees to chair the company and steer its stock market listing. Now that happens in May 2024 through a Spac or a special purpose acquisition company deal.

…………………Oklo’s share price initially. In fact, it fell on the first day of the listing. But after Donald Trump’s election, and particularly with his inauguration, he really ratcheted up the focus on energy dominance and also gave this strong support for nuclear power.

…………………….And then in May 2025, you get Oklo’s chief executive Jacob DeWitte visiting the White House and speaking in the Oval Office………….

You have Trump sitting in the Oval Office, launching several executive orders on nuclear energy pledging to quadruple capacity by 2050, and he’s invited Jacob and a couple of other CEOs of nuclear companies. You’ve got the chief executive of Constellation Energy standing there beside him, the chief executive of General Matter, an enrichment company, standing there.

……………The room is really packed full of celebrities and there’s Jacob DeWitte in amongst them all.

Jacob DeWitte audio clip………………… The physics are on our side and these things help unleash this innovation to actually realise that. So it’s never been more exciting.

Donald Trump audio clip
Very exciting indeed. Go ahead, please.

Jamie Smyth This platform to speak from the Oval Office next to Trump, I think was a huge endorsement of the company for investors. You really start to see the stock price jump from there, and then it really goes through the roof. It’s made the DeWittes paper billionaires. They own just under 18 per cent of the company, though they’ve made a large chunk of real money too by selling some of their stock. In the past six months, they’ve made about $250mn in share sales according to some Bloomberg data analysed by the FT.

……………………………….Well, I think Oklo really sits at the intersection of these two stock market booms in artificial intelligence and energy companies. The AI revolutions being driven by Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and other big tech giants, and this realisation that data centres, which are driving the AI technology, they’re gonna require huge amounts of electricity. So that’s why you’re seeing shares in energy companies, utilities like Constellation Energy, gas turbine makers such as GE Vernova and Siemens and other nuclear start-ups, all their shares are soaring.

………………………………. the Trump factor. The administration is spending big on nuclear.

Michela Tindera
Like Jamie mentioned earlier, the Trump administration has pledged to quadruple US nuclear capacity by 2050

Jamie Smyth It has very ambitious plans to build out 10 large-scale reactors and support this new technology that Oklo is developing. And specifically, Oklo has benefited from this. They have been offered a place on a fast-tracking programme for their nuclear reactor. They’ve also been offered a place on a fuel programme as well. And they are being given a very specialised, scarce form of fuel, which they require to run their type of reactor. So I think investors are responding to this and they’re getting very excited.

……………………………Bank of America have actually said that this support from the Trump administration is one element that gives the company an edge over its rivals. Democrats, however, have alleged that it really creates an appearance of impropriety, and they have asked a series of questions of the administration about its relationship with Oklo.

………………Oklo wants to build a new type of nuclear reactor, something called a small modular reactor or an SMR…………And what’s interesting about Oklo’s SMR is that it wants to use liquid sodium as a coolant rather than the standard of water.

……………………………Oklo would say their reactor could be safer than a water-cooled reactor in terms of a Chernobyl-style accident. It’s just not gonna happen. But there are downsides to sodium-cooled reactors. You know, the big question with these sodium-cooled reactors are, we’ve had four or five of them actually already built in the United States over the last 40 years on a test basis, but none of them have actually managed to become commercially viable, so they didn’t take off. ……………………………………….

Michela Tindera So Oklo’s plan here sounds pretty ambitious. First, they wanna build a new kind of nuclear reactor that hasn’t been sold commercially in the US before. And second, they also have this untested business model. They wanna sell the nuclear power themselves instead of offloading that to a utility company.

………………..Jamie Smyth
Oklo have a very ambitious goal of commercially beginning to sell power through their SMRs by 2027……………..

They haven’t yet built their nuclear reactor. They haven’t got a licence for their nuclear reactor. They haven’t got any revenue and they haven’t got a legally binding contract with a customer.

Michela Tindera Not any customers at all?

Jamie Smyth They don’t have legally binding par purchase agreements with customers. What they’ve got is they’ve got MOUs or memorandums of understandings. So companies have come to them and said, we’d like to talk about and draw out an outline of an agreement, but there’s no legally binding agreement yet in place. So until it can do that, I think there’ll always be a question mark over the sustainability of the company.

Michela Tindera A lot of what Oklo is pursuing is untested, the technology, but also the business model of both building the reactors and selling the power they generate. And as its market valuation source, analysts are increasingly pointing out that the company’s valuation is stretched.

The business has attracted the attention of short sellers. That’s people who bet on a stock’s price going down. Oklo’s short sellers have borrowed roughly 13 per cent of the stock. They believe that the DeWittes have underestimated the amount of time and money that’s required to commercialise their technology. One area they’ve particularly struggled with is licensing.

Jamie Smyth One of the issues to do with Oklo is, it’s one of the few companies that has had a licence application rejected by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the United States. That is quite a big thing.

……………………..Jamie Smyth………….And then in 2022, the NRC didn’t award the licence. So that really raises the question mark about whether Oklo was able to secure one of these licences. Oklo has strongly criticised the NRC decision to not award them a licence. They even alleged the NRC staff engaged in inappropriate behaviour for a regulator.

………………Michela Tindera In the years since, Oklo has successfully lobbied the government to streamline the NRC licensing process. Jamie Smyth So the Trump administration has set up a separate pathway for SMR developers to build test reactors on federal land under the oversight of the Department of Energy, which is run by energy secretary Wright. And beyond that, the Trump administration has piled extraordinary pressure on the NRC to approve reactors within short timeframes, much shorter than previously.

Michela Tindera But as Oklo moves forward, it’s a space that everyone will be watching closely.

Jamie Smyth I suppose one of the risks with Oklo is, if they try to move too fast, they try to race ahead with their technology and they hit a wall, then it could impact the rest of the industry. And this nuclear renaissance that we’re beginning to see could be hurt by that. Safety is of key importance in the nuclear industry. If something goes wrong, you have seen it in the past, then the whole industry suffers.

Michela Tindera So to recap, this is a company with no customers and no contracts, and . . .

Jamie Smyth At the minute the company has generated zero revenue, yet it is currently one of the highest-valued pre-revenue companies listed in the US. And that makes people nervous.

……………………………..Jamie Smyth So the thing about Oklo is, because it’s based in Silicon Valley, it takes a very Big Tech approach to how it’s gonna operate, which is very different than other nuclear companies have worked in the past. You know, move fast and break things is the motto in Silicon Valley.

……………………………………………………………………………Jamie Smyth I think what investors probably want to see is they need to see delivery now. They need to see progress on a licence with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Oklo says they’re working towards that, but they also need to see some contracts which are going to bring in some revenue, and most importantly of all, they need to see that these reactors are going to work and that they’re going to work on a commercial basis. ………………….. https://www.ft.com/content/3e84e4d4-bf72-44f7-8fdd-0bdf36c806f6