(Bloomberg) — A developer of advanced nuclear systems backed by Sam Altman has more than doubled in value this week as investors rushed to pile into companies associated with the power industry.
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Shares of Oklo Inc., which went public in May after merging with a blank-check company sponsored by the OpenAI chief executive and serial dealmaker Michael Klein, have spiked 115% to a record $19.72 this week. The gains come as Amazon.com Inc., billionaire financier Ken Griffin, and Alphabet Inc.’s Google unveiled investments in next-generation nuclear energy firms.
Oklo shares have been volatile since going public, sinking as low as $5.35 on Sept. 9 before more than tripling over the past month and a half. On Friday, the stock spiked to an intraday peak of $20.64 from a $9.15 close just a week ago — vaulting its market capitalization to top $2.4 billion.
Santa Clara, California-based Oklo is benefiting from the surge in artificial intelligence and other computing that’s driving a boom in power-hungry data centers and helping to boost demand for electricity for the first time in decades.
NuScale Power Corp., a peer of the still-private and Amazon-backed X-Energy, has jumped more than 35% this week, while Centrus Energy Corp. is up more than 60%.
However, Oklo is still years away from having a functional operating reactor, something it had said would likely be in service before the end of the decade.
Despite that, its stock is bringing a paper windfall to Altman and Klein, as well as executives Jacob DeWitte and Caroline Cochran. Altman owns about 3.2 million shares, worth $60 million as of Friday’s trading, while Klein’s nearly 14 million share stake from the SPAC deal is worth more than $260 million, data compiled by Bloomberg and regulatory filings show. Meanwhile, the husband-and-wife combination of DeWitte and Cochran have about 24 million shares worth more than $460 million.
The group, however, is restricted from selling their stock. Under the current terms of the SPAC deal, the four investors can’t sell the more than 40 million combined shares until a three-year phased lock-up expires. But there is a caveat to that limit. If the stock can hold above pre-determined levels — from $12 to $16 — for 20 of 60 trading days, then chunks of their positions would be available to cash in.
Large venture capital investors that previously served on the Oklo board could begin selling shares in early November, according to a company presentation from this summer.
–With assistance from Matt Turner.
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