Sam Altman’s nuclear energy company Oklo plunges 54% in NYSE debut
Sam
Altman
is
now
chairman
of
a
public
company.
But
it’s
not
OpenAI.
On
Friday,
advanced
nuclear
fission
company
Oklo
started
trading
on
the
New
York
Stock
Exchange.
The
company,
which
has
yet
to
generate
any
revenue,
went
public
through
a
special
purpose
acquisition
company
(SPAC)
called
AltC
Acquisition
Corp.,
founded
and
led
by
Altman.
Under
the
ticker
symbol “OKLO,”
shares
plummeted
54%
on
Friday
to
$8.45,
valuing
the
company
at
about
$364
million.
Oklo
received
roughly $306
million in
gross
proceeds in
the
transaction,
according
to
a
release.
Oklo’s
business
model
is
based
on
commercializing
nuclear
fission,
the
reaction
that
fuels
all
nuclear
power
plants.
Instead
of
conventional
reactors,
the
company
aims
to
use
mini
nuclear
reactors
housed
in
A-frame
structures.
Its
goal
is
to
sell
the
energy
to
end
users
such
as
the
U.S.
Air
Force
and
big
tech
companies.
Oklo
is
currently
working
to
build
its
first
small-scale
reactor
in
Idaho,
which
could
eventually
power
the
types
of
data
centers
that
OpenAI
and
other
artificial
intelligence
companies
need
to
run
their
AI
models
and
services.
Altman
is
co-founder
and
CEO
of
OpenAI,
which
has
been
valued
at
over
$80
billion
by
private
investors.
He’s
said
that
he
sees
nuclear
energy
as
one
of
the
best
ways
to
solve
the
problem
of
growing
demand
for
AI,
and
the
energy
that
powers
the
technology,
without
relying
on
fossil
fuels.
Microsoft
co-founder
Bill
Gates
and
Amazon
founder
Jeff
Bezos
have
also
invested
in
nuclear
plants
in
recent
years.
“I
don’t
see
a
way
for
us
to
get
there
without
nuclear,”
Altman
told
CNBC
in
2023. “I
mean,
maybe
we
could
get
there
just
with
solar
and
storage.
But
from
my
vantage
point,
I
feel
like
this
is
the
most
likely
and
the
best
way
to
get
there.”
In
an
interview
with
CNBC
Thursday,
Oklo
CEO
Jacob
DeWitte
confirmed
that
the
company
has
yet
to
generate
revenue
and
has
no
nuclear
plants
deployed
at
the
moment.
He
said
the
company
is
targeting
2027
for
its
first
plant
to
come
online.
Going
the
SPAC
route
is
risky.
So-called
reverse
mergers
became
popular
in
the
low-interest
rate
days
of
2020
and
2021
when
tech
valuations
were
soaring
and
investors
were
looking
for
growth
over
profit.
But
the
SPAC
market
collapsed
in
2022
alongside
rising
rates
and
hasn’t
recovered.
AI-related
companies,
on
the
other
hand,
are
the
new
darlings
of
Wall
Street.
“SPACs
haven’t
exactly
had
the
best
performances
in
the
past
couple
of
years,
so
for
us
to
have
sort
of
the
outcome
that
we’ve
had
here
is
obviously
a
function
of
the
work
we
put
in,
but
also
what
we’re
building
and
also
the
fact
that
the
market
sees
the
opportunity
sets
here,”
said
DeWitte,
who
co-founded
the
company
in
2013. “I
think
it’s
very
promising
on
multiple
fronts
for
[the]
nuclear,
AI,
data
center
push,
as
well
as
the
energy
transition
piece.”
The
company
has
seen
its
fair
share
of
regulatory
setbacks.
In
2022,
the
U.S.
Nuclear
Regulatory
Commission
denied
Oklo’s
application
for
an
Idaho
reactor.
The
company
has
been
working
on
a
new
application,
which
it
isn’t
aiming
to
submit
to
the
NRC
until
early
next
year,
DeWitte
said,
adding
that
it’s
currently
in
the “pre-application
engagement”
stage
with
the
commission.
Altman
got
involved
with
Oklo
while
president
of
the
startup
incubator
Y
Combinator.
Oklo
went
into
the
program
in
2014
after
an
earlier
meeting
between
Altman
and
DeWitte.
In
2015,
Altman
invested
in
the
company
and
became
chairman.
It’s
not
Altman’s
only
foray
into
nuclear
energy
or
other
infrastructure
that
could
power
large-scale
AI
growth.
In
2021,
Altman led
a $500
million funding
round
in
clean
energy
firm Helion,
which
is
working
to
develop
and
commercialize
nuclear
fusion.
Helion
said
in
a
blog
post
at
the
time
that
the
capital
would
go
toward
its
electricity
demonstration
generator,
Polaris, “which
we
expect
to
demonstrate
net
electricity
from
fusion
in
2024.”
Altman
didn’t
respond
to
a
request
for
comment.
In
recent
years,
Altman
has
also
poured
money
into
chip
endeavors
and
investments
that
could
help
power
the
AI
tools
OpenAI
builds.
Just
before his
brief
ouster
as
OpenAI
CEO
in
November,
he
was reportedly
seeking
billions
of
dollars for
a
chip
venture
codenamed “Tigris”
to
eventually
compete
with
Nvidia.
Altman
in
2018
invested
in
AI
chip
startup
Rain
Neuromorphics,
based
near
OpenAI’s
San
Francisco
headquarters.
The
next
year,
OpenAI
signed
a
letter
of
intent
to
spend
$51
million
on
Rain’s
chips.
In
December,
the
U.S.
compelled
a
Saudi
Aramco-backed
venture
capital
firm
to
sell
its
shares
in
Rain.
DeWitte
told
CNBC
that
the
data
center
represents “a
pretty
exciting
opportunity.”
“What
we’ve
seen
is
there’s
a
lot
of
interest
with
AI,
specifically,”
he
said. “AI
compute
needs
are
significant.
It
opens
the
door
for
a
lot
of
different
approaches
in
terms
of
how
people
think
about
designing
and
developing
AI
infrastructure.”
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