Shares in nuclear reactor companies Oklo (OKLO) and NuScale Power (SMR) plunged on Friday as X-Energy (XE), a small modular reactor (SMR) company backed by tech giant Amazon (AMZN), surged by roughly 27% on its trading debut on Nasdaq.
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Investors rushed to grab a stake in X-Energy, pushing the Maryland-based company’s share price up from the offer price of $23 to $29.20 and an additional 2% in after-hours trading. X-Energy previously set an initial public offering (IPO) price target of between $16 and $19 but bumped up the target following strong investor interest.
The company — whose $500 million fundraise in October 2024 was led by Amazon and Ken Griffin, the co-founder and CEO of hedge fund Citadel — raised $1 billion from the IPO.
X-Energy also grabbed a market value shy of $12 billion on a fully diluted basis. This refers to the valuation obtainable if every option, warrant, restricted stock unit, and convertible share were exercised or converted into stock.
For comparison’s sake, Oklo, on a non-diluted basis, had a market cap of $13.27 billion as of the close of trading on Friday, while NuScale Power had $4.36 billion.
X-Energy Heats Up SMR Rivalry
X-Energy’s public market entry adds another layer of competition to the race to develop clean nuclear energy to meet ballooning demand for power for massive AI workloads. Already, Oklo competes with rival SMR developer NuScale Power (SMR) and privately held peers TerraPower and Kairos Power.
The development comes as Oklo, which secured a strategic nuclear energy deal this week with chipmaking giant Nvidia (NVDA), broke ground on its first Aurora powerhouse in September and is racing to deliver its first nuclear power plant by 2028.
While Oklo’s losses widened in 2025, HSBC has pointed out that the company is debt-free and has a clean balance sheet with “imminent first revenue.”
Which Nuclear Stock Is the Best Buy?
TipRanks’ Stock Comparison tool shows that NuScale Power (SMR) offers a bigger upside of approximately 40%. This is based on an average price target of $16.70 and comes with a Moderate Buy rating.
