Oklo Stock Rises as U.S. Launches $200M AI Nuclear Power Program

TLDR

• Oklo is joining a Trump administration-led $200 million program to speed up nuclear power plant development for AI data centers.
• The initiative also includes X-Energy, Microsoft, and Nvidia.
• OKLO stock rose as much as 5.9%, climbing 6.3% in after-hours Tuesday before trading around 2% higher Wednesday.
• Roughly $60 million of the program will go to national laboratories and universities over three years.
• The initiative is expected to be formally announced at a U.S. Department of Energy AI energy summit.

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Oklo stock moved sharply higher this week after Bloomberg reported the company has been selected to join a federal program pairing nuclear developers with major tech firms to power the AI boom.

OKLO climbed as much as 5.9% on Wednesday and surged 6.3% in after-hours trading Tuesday, with the stock sitting around $45.05 — up roughly 2% — at the time of writing.

Oklo Inc., OKLO

The $200 million initiative is led by the Trump administration and pairs advanced nuclear reactor developers Oklo and X-Energy with tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia. An official announcement is expected at a U.S. Department of Energy AI energy summit.

BREAKING: The Trump administration is preparing to launch a $200M initiative with Oklo, X-energy, Microsoft and NVIDIA to help scale the deployment of advanced nuclear reactors for data centers, Bloomberg reports.

— Atoms Not Bits (@AtomsNotBits) July 21, 2026

The program has one clear goal: build nuclear power plants faster to keep up with surging electricity demand from AI data centers.

X-Energy also rallied on the news, gaining as much as 3.2% on Wednesday, reflecting broad enthusiasm for the federal program across the small modular reactor sector.

What the Program Actually Covers

According to a document reviewed by Bloomberg, roughly $60 million of the total funding will be shared among Department of Energy national laboratories and academic institutions — including the University of Texas at Austin — over a three-year period.

The program targets three specific bottlenecks: the time it takes to design, license, and build new nuclear plants. It also aims to cut the number of staff needed to run future facilities.

The DOE estimates around 300 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity will be needed by 2050. That’s a massive gap, especially considering no advanced nuclear reactors are operating commercially yet.

AI Demand Is Driving the Push

The backdrop here is straightforward. AI data centers are consuming enormous amounts of electricity, and that’s pushing up energy prices across the country.

That’s become a political issue too, with midterm elections approaching. Nvidia and OpenAI have both flagged energy availability as a top constraint on AI expansion — and on maintaining the U.S. competitive edge over China.

Nuclear is increasingly the answer being floated, given its ability to deliver continuous, carbon-free power at scale.

Alongside this initiative, the DOE has also moved to make plutonium from Cold War-era nuclear weapons available to commercial reactor developers — another signal of how seriously the government is taking the energy gap.

Oklo still has real hurdles ahead: fuel sourcing, licensing, construction timelines, and a valuation that prices in a lot of future success. But being part of a $200 million federal program alongside Microsoft and Nvidia puts it in a very visible position.

At publication, OKLO was trading at $44.83, up 1.59% on the day.