Stock Soars 80% Despite Zero Revenue... Surges on Trump Policy Tailwind [Company & Issue]

Stock price rises despite weak performance
First revenue expected in 2027
Anticipation for commercialization of advanced SMR technology

Conceptual diagram of the Aurora nuclear power plant, a micro nuclear reactor being developed by Oklo. Oklo website

The stock price of Oklo, a U.S. small modular reactor (SMR) startup, has surged by more than 80% over the past month. Although the company, founded in 2013, has yet to generate any revenue, its market capitalization has already surpassed 9 trillion won. This surge is attributed to expectations that Oklo will benefit from the Trump administration's policy to expand nuclear power generation.

Stock price soars over 80% in a month despite weak Q1 performance

Oklo's stock price rose sharply after it reported disastrous first-quarter results on May 13, with zero revenue and a net loss of $9.8 million (about 13.5 billion won). As of June 4 (local time), the stock stood at $49.09, up 86% from $26.31 at the beginning of last month. The company's market capitalization has reached $6.9 billion (about 9.5 trillion won). Oklo also posted a net loss of $73.6 million last year. The scale of losses increased by 129% in one year, raising concerns about the company's ability to continue operating, but investors have continued to buy the stock.

The main factor reflected in the stock price was not the poor financial results, but rather the Trump administration's policy to expand nuclear power generation. President Trump announced last month that the United States would increase its nuclear power generation capacity to 400 gigawatts (GW) by 2050, more than four times the current level, and signed an executive order easing regulations on nuclear power plants. Since a typical nuclear power plant has a generation capacity of about 1 GW, expectations have grown for demand for more than 400 new nuclear plants, fueling the stock's rebound.

Zero revenue since 2013 founding... First revenue expected from 2027

On the 23rd of last month (local time), U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order easing regulations on new nuclear power plants. The Trump administration announced plans to quadruple the scale of nuclear power generation by 2050 compared to the current level. Photo by EPA Yonhap News

Oklo, which has posted zero revenue since its founding in 2013, is expected to start generating revenue after 2027. The company's first Aurora nuclear power plant, currently undergoing licensing procedures at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) site with a target deployment date of late 2027, is expected to be completed and begin commercial operation before Oklo records its first revenue.

The Aurora plant uses sodium, a liquid-state form of the element, as a reactor coolant. Oklo is developing next-generation sodium-cooled fast reactor technology for this purpose. Its output is 15 to 50 megawatts (MW), which is only 3% to 5% of the average 1 GW output of conventional nuclear plants. While this small scale makes it difficult to supply power to large metropolitan areas, it is sufficient for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers or small communities.

Oklo has stated that the installation cost for one Aurora plant is about $60 million (about 8.16 billion won). This is about one-fifteenth the price of a new nuclear plant in Dukovany, Czech Republic, recently contracted by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, which costs 1.3 trillion won per unit. The land required for construction is also much smaller: while a conventional nuclear plant needs at least 1 square kilometer (about 300,000 pyeong) per unit, the Aurora plant can be built on just 8,300 square meters (about 2,500 pyeong). In addition, the volume of spent nuclear fuel can be reduced to one-twentieth, and the spent fuel can be recycled for power generation instead of being immediately disposed of.

There are high expectations that Oklo's Aurora plant, once fully operational, will see significant revenue growth in line with rising AI power demand. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that global AI data center electricity consumption, which was 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) last year, will more than double to 945 TWh by 2030.

Riding the AI boom with backing from Sam Altman and others

Inside view of the data center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in the United States. Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

Oklo was founded by Jacob DeWitte and Caroline Cochran, engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Their goal was to develop a micro nuclear reactor small enough to fit on a university campus. Since 2015, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has drawn attention to the company's potential synergy with the AI industry by investing in Oklo and serving as its board chairman.

In May last year, CEO Altman took Oklo public on the Nasdaq via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). As the generative AI market boomed and nuclear power stocks gained traction, Oklo's share price soared more than 170% from its listing through the end of last year. In addition, when Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy and a former Oklo board member, was appointed U.S. Secretary of Energy in the Trump administration this January, expectations of policy benefits intensified.

Currently, CEO Altman has resigned as board chairman. It is believed that he stepped down to comply with conflict-of-interest regulations as he prepares for collaboration with OpenAI. Bloomberg analyzed Altman's resignation as Oklo board chairman as a move to prevent potential issues such as misuse of insider information or biased decision-making in the event of a partnership between the two companies.