Oklo nuclear fission start-up
As stated by CNBC the advanced nuclear fission start-up Oklo began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. The corporation, which has not yet garnered any revenue, went public through Altman’s Company AltC Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Shares of the firm, which trade under the ticker “OKLO,” fell 54% on Friday to $8.45, valuing it at roughly $364 million. According to a release, Oklo earned gross profits from the transaction of almost $306 million.
The commercialization of nuclear fission, the reaction that powers all nuclear power plants, is the foundation of Oklo’s business strategy. The company intends to deploy miniature nuclear reactors housed in A-frame constructions in place of conventional reactors. Selling energy to final consumers like the US Air Force and major tech firms is its aim.
In order to power the kinds of data centers that Open AI and other artificial intelligence businesses require to run their AI models and services, Oklo is presently building its first small-scale reactor in Idaho.
Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates invested in nuclear plants
Altman is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Open AI, a company that venture capitalists have valued at over $80 billion. He has stated that he believes that nuclear energy is one of the best methods to address the issue of an increasing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and the energy requirement to power the technology without using fossil fuels. Nuclear plant investments have also been made recently by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft.
ALTMAN 2023
In 2023, Altman stated to CNBC, “I don’t see a way for us to get there without nuclear.” With just solar and storage, perhaps we could make it there. However, in my opinion, this is the most practical and effective route to take.
Jacob DeWitte, the CEO of Oklo, stated in a Thursday interview with CNBC that the company does not currently have any nuclear power stations operational and is yet to make a profit. He stated that the corporation plans to start operating its first facility in 2027.
It’s dangerous to go the SPAC path. In the low-interest rate years of 2020 and 2021, when tech valuations were skyrocketing and investors prioritized growth above profit, so-called reverse mergers gained popularity. However, the SPAC market did not rebound after collapsing in 2022 in tandem with rising rates.
Conversely, Wall Street’s latest favorites are corporations that utilize artificial intelligence.
“For us to have sort of the outcome that we’ve had here is evidently an outcome of the work we put in, but also what we’re building and the fact that the market sees the opportunity sets here,” said DeWitte, who co-founded the company in 2013. “SPACs haven’t experienced their best seasons in the past couple of years.” “I think the push for data centres, AI, nuclear power, and the energy transition is very promising on multiple fronts.”
The corporation has seen an ample amount of regulatory challenges. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in the year 2022 turned down Oklo’s request for an Idaho reactor. DeWitte stated that the company has been working on a fresh application and stated that it is at present in the “pre-application engagement” stage with the commission. The company plans to submit the new application to the NRC at the beginning of the coming year.
While serving as president of Y Combinator, a startup incubator, Altman became acquainted with Oklo. Following an earlier discussion between Altman and DeWitte, Oklo enrolled in the programme in 2014. 2015 saw Altman become chairman and make an investment in the business.
This isn’t Altman’s first experiment with nuclear energy or other infrastructure that could support the development of AI on a large scale.
Helion raised $500 million
Nuclear fusion research and development company Helion raised $500 million in investment under Altman’s leadership in 2021. The funding would go towards Polaris, Helion’s power demonstration generator, “which is anticipated to produce net electricity from fusion in 2024,” the company stated in a blog post.
Comment requests were not answered by Altman.
Altman has also made significant financial investments in semiconductor projects and ventures in recent years, which may assist fund the development of AI tools by OpenAI.
Prior to his temporary dismissal as CEO of OpenAI in November, he was allegedly in talks to raise billions of dollars for a semiconductor company called “Tigris” that would eventually take on Nvidia.
2018 witnessed Altman invest in Rain Neuromorphics, an AI chip firm based close to OpenAI’s San Francisco offices. OpenAI agreed to purchase Rain’s chips for $51 million the next year. The United States pushed a venture capital firm sponsored by Saudi Aramco to sell its Rain shares in December.
DeWitte highlighted the data centre as “a quite exciting prospect” in an interview with CNBC.
“What we’ve observed is a great deal of interest in AI in particular,” he remarked. “AI computing demands are substantial. It provides a wide range of perspectives regarding how people should approach creating and developing AI infrastructure.
