SANTA CLARA, California, April 24, 2026, 04:06 (PDT)
- Oklo has struck a deal with Nvidia and Los Alamos National Laboratory to collaborate on AI-driven nuclear fuel validation and supporting infrastructure at Los Alamos.
- The deal comes at a time when data centers are pushing up U.S. electricity demand, a shift after years of largely stagnant power consumption.
- Oklo climbed 5.5% to $76.46 in recent trading; Nvidia slipped 1.4%, moving down to $199.64.
Oklo Inc is teaming up with Nvidia and Los Alamos National Laboratory to push ahead on nuclear fuel validation and AI-driven infrastructure—part of a broader effort as advanced reactor firms eye the surging power needs of artificial intelligence. According to the company, the partnership will zero in on testing and analyzing nuclear fuel performance and related studies at Los Alamos.
The timing is key. After years of flat growth, U.S. electricity demand has picked up, according to the Energy Information Administration. Data centers — especially those powering AI servers — are a big piece of that uptick. It’s forcing nuclear back into conversation, since AI operations require reliable, not just inexpensive, energy.
Nvidia’s so-called “AI factories” are at the center of the agreement—these setups handle everything: pulling in data, training AI, and cranking out results at scale. Oklo says the two will pair advanced nuclear energy with AI models, digital twins (that’s industry shorthand for computer-based system replicas used in testing), plus simulation. NVIDIA
Oklo said the early phase will target AI models rooted in physics and chemistry for plutonium-bearing fuel, along with materials science, fabrication research, and efforts to boost grid stability and backup for nuclear-powered AI factories at Los Alamos. No financial details were released.
Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte said the deal combines “reactor deployment, high-performance compute” and fuel science know-how. According to DeWitte, the collaboration could push forward Oklo’s Pluto reactor fuel program, which was chosen for the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program. Business Wire
Much of the action centered on Oklo, with Investor’s Business Daily pegging its weekly jump at 15.6% after the Nvidia-Los Alamos news broke. Other nuclear names went their own ways: NuScale Power slipped, BWX Technologies advanced, and GE Vernova added ground.
HSBC’s Samantha Hoh jumped in too, starting coverage on Oklo with a Buy and a $96 target, Investing.com noted. Hoh pointed to Oklo’s “owner-operator” model—a setup for next-gen small modular reactors, those smaller nuclear plants built for plug-and-play installation. Investing.com
The Genesis Mission anchors the federal push—a Department of Energy initiative pulling in national labs, industry, and academia to apply AI across energy, science, and security projects. Oklo positioned the Los Alamos project as fitting squarely within that mission.
Oklo’s push to move from lab results to an operational reactor gained traction in March, when the DOE Idaho Operations Office signed off on a Nuclear Safety Design Agreement for the company’s Aurora powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory. That sign-off marks a key milestone in the agency’s pilot reactor authorization process.
Still, the risks remain significant. Oklo disclosed in a filing that it hasn’t constructed any powerhouses yet and hasn’t signed a binding power purchase agreement to run a plant or supply electricity or heat. The document also points out that significant revenue hinges on completing development and bringing the Aurora product line to market, a milestone that could face delays—or might not be reached at all.
Nvidia’s deal marks another step in Oklo’s strategy to lock in future power sales with big customers instead of just licensing its reactor designs. In its annual report, the company disclosed it had purchased land in southern Ohio for Aurora powerhouses, among them a proposed 1.2-gigawatt campus tied to a Meta Platforms prepayment. Oklo has also lined up non-binding letters of intent with Equinix, Diamondback Energy, and Prometheus Hyperscale.
At this stage, it’s just a research and infrastructure tie-up—not an operational AI power plant. But the agreement hands Oklo a marquee chip partner, while Nvidia gets a potential edge against one of the toughest bottlenecks in AI expansion: round-the-clock power supply.
