US selects Oklo and XEnergy for $200M AI nuclear program

Shares of advanced nuclear reactor developers surged this week following reports that the companies have been selected for a major federal initiative aimed at accelerating reactor deployment to power artificial intelligence data centers. The $200 million program, spearheaded by the Trump administration, will pair reactor firms Oklo and XEnergy with technology giants Microsoft and Nvidia.

The U.S. Department of Energy is expected to formally announce the program at an upcoming AI energy summit. The initiative's core mission is to drastically reduce the time required to design, license, and construct new nuclear power plants, while also cutting the personnel needed to operate them. This addresses a critical bottleneck, as the explosive growth of AI data centers has created unprecedented electricity demand, contributing to rising energy costs nationwide.

According to program documentation, approximately $60 million of the total funding will be distributed to Department of Energy national laboratories and educational institutions, including the University of Texas at Austin, over a three-year period. The Energy Department has projected that roughly 300 gigawatts of new nuclear...