Oklo Stock Is Up 1,000%. Where the Nuclear Start-Up Goes Next, According to Its CEO.

Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Oklo , whose shares are up more than 1,000% over the past year, has seen no shortage of good news lately.

Earlier this month, the nuclear start-up was selected for three projects under the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program, which aims to have at least three test reactors up and running by July of next year, ahead of Oklo’s own deployment targets.

The announcement came months after President Donald Trump signed a string of executive orders meant to kick-start the production of nuclear power in the U.S.

“I think they see potential in American innovation. I know that sounds sort of cheesy, but this is our actual competitive advantage in the nuclear space as a country,” Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte said in an interview with Barron’s.

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The development of the domestic nuclear industry has been hindered by a complicated regulatory environment. Until recently, the U.S. lacked domestically owned uranium-enrichment facilities, which convert the natural metal into a usable form for nuclear fuel.

Access to fuel has remained a pervasive overhang. The latest annual report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, released last year, shows that most uranium deliveries in the U.S. were of foreign origin in 2023, with Canada emerging as the top supplier.

Over the past decade or so, there have been efforts to turn things around. “I think there’s been a lot of work that dates back, frankly, to the Obama administration recognizing the importance of nuclear,” DeWitte conceded.

However, a supportive market environment and shifting priorities appear to have galvanized the buildout of the industry. DeWitte ticked off a number of catalysts: growing industrial needs, climate motivations, and, of course, artificial intelligence. “This AI dynamic has completely inverted the entire paradigm about how we thought about energy and the time to deployment,” he said.

That’s not to mention the Trump administration’s America-first messaging, which could have something to do with the recent bullishness at the federal level.

“I think trying to unleash American innovation is one of the key themes of this,” DeWitte said. “We don’t need to throw a bunch of capital in the system. The government simply has to say, ‘We could do things to help you go faster, so we’re going to do that.’”

Of the executive orders signed in May—DeWitte himself was present in the Oval Office for the occasion—most consequential were the directives unlocking plutonium and legacy materials as usable fuel. An order titled “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base” establishes a program to dispose of surplus plutonium by processing it and making it available in a form that can be used for fuel fabrication.

“Fuel is something we’ve long been advocates of,” DeWitte said. “You have lots of material that can be, generally speaking, readily used as fuel for advanced reactors today. You need a structure, but you can do it.”

Oklo specializes in small modular reactors, which have a lower energy output than traditional large reactors but are easier to construct and deploy at scale. Oklo’s reactors, in particular, are designed to run on nuclear waste and require refueling once every decade.

The start-up plans to erect its first powerhouse on the grounds of Idaho National Laboratory and is targeting the production of commercial power by the end of 2027. While the federally funded laboratory has agreed to provide Oklo with enriched uranium, this doesn’t mean it will be converted into a format that the powerhouse can immediately burn. Oklo has plans for a fuel foundry at the same site.

The company has dipped its toes into other ventures, notably radioisotope production through its acquisition of Atomic Alchemy earlier this year. Oklo plans to recycle spent nuclear fuel to extract isotopes with applications ranging from medical imaging to cancer treatment.

Of the three awards Oklo was granted by the DOE, two went to the start-up while one went to Atomic Alchemy, which operates as a subsidiary of the company.

Beyond introducing a new revenue stream and serving as a point of diversification into other markets, Atomic Alchemy presented a another investment prospect. “We saw the opportunity and honestly thought the market was radically under-appreciating it,” the CEO said.

Naysayers may cast doubt on the practicality of Oklo’s timelines, but the company has advocates in its corner. Analysts at BofA Securities were the latest to join the chorus of support as they initiated coverage of the stock on Tuesday.

“We believe Oklo’s vertically integrated build-own-operate model is uniquely suited to break through the commercialization barrier that has stalled many new power technologies in risk-averse sectors,” wrote the firm, which rates the stock at Buy with a $92 target price. Shares closed up 4.4% at $74.31 on Tuesday.

“By signing long-term power customers and managing deployment in-house, Oklo removes the ‘chicken-and-egg’ barrier that has slowed adoption of new generation technologies in a risk-averse utility and developer landscape,” the analysts continued.

DeWitte shares in the sentiment. “We have to be innovative,” the CEO said. “That’s not trying to do the same thing with more government handouts. It’s leaning into doing things inherently differently.”

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com