NEW YORK, June 2, 2026, 14:07 (EDT)
- Oklo shares were up around 8% in early afternoon trading, ahead of a mostly flat broader market.
- U.S. Energy Department talks on surplus plutonium fuel and an upcoming July deadline for a reactor pilot are behind the move.
- The stock is still a play on execution. Questions are open on fuel sources, licensing, and first revenue.
Oklo Inc. shares climbed Tuesday with traders moving back into nuclear stocks linked to AI power needs and the U.S. push to ramp up advanced-reactor rollouts.
Oklo stock traded up $5.52 to $72.41 in early afternoon, after reaching $73.77. More than 16 million shares changed hands. The company’s market cap hovered around $12.35 billion. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF was flat.
Oklo is trading more like an option on next-gen nuclear growth than a traditional utility at this point. The company wants to supply electricity and heat from small fast-fission reactors to big customers like data centers, factories, and defense installations, but investors are still looking for proof it can secure fuel, pass regulators, and run its operation at commercial scale.
Oklo was picked last week by the U.S. Department of Energy for advanced talks in a surplus plutonium program, adding to the recent momentum in the fuel space. The company said it could use designated surplus plutonium as fuel for advanced reactors, if it meets U.S. security and safeguard checks, during a time when U.S. enrichment capacity has not caught up. “Fuel supply constraints are a key throttle,” Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte said. Oklo
This is the simple version of the deal. HALEU is high-assay low-enriched uranium, a higher-concentration fuel that some advanced reactors will use. Oklo has said to investors it’s also considering plutonium and recycled fuel as it works on a mixed fuel plan, but said using those would need clearance from the DOE and other signoffs.
Options traders leaned speculative. The Fly said Oklo saw options volume running more than double the daily norm, using Cboe figures. Call contracts outnumbered puts by a wide margin.
Peers saw uneven action. NuScale Power climbed around 8%, while Nano Nuclear Energy picked up over 3%. The session looked more like a broader run for nuclear stocks than a single-name move.
newcleo, which works with Oklo on plutonium, was also in focus. Reuters said last week the European nuclear company aims to go public on Nasdaq by merging in a deal worth $2.4 billion. The report also said newcleo is tied to Oklo’s DOE fuel project.
Investors have an eye on a technical milestone coming up. The DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program wants at least three advanced reactor concepts, not inside national labs, to hit “criticality” — when a nuclear chain reaction can sustain itself — by July 4. Companies listed include Atomic Alchemy and Oklo Inc., along with others. The Department of Energy’s Energy.gov
Oklo’s Atomic Alchemy unit plans for its Groves Isotopes Test Reactor in Texas to reach criticality by July 4, 2026. The company is aiming to use the reactor to prove isotope production before moving to commercial operations. Isotopes are radioactive materials that serve medicine, research and industry.
Oklo and Meta have commercial backing for the project. In January, both companies announced a deal for a 1.2-gigawatt nuclear energy campus in southern Ohio. Meta can prepay for some power and put money toward early work on the project. One gigawatt is enough for a large project. The campus would supply Meta’s data centers in the area.
Oklo’s potential is dividing analysts. Wedbush’s Daniel Ives kept his Outperform and $110 target, telling TipRanks last week that the company could get a lift from more AI-driven power demand and its build-own-operate plan.
But the downside risk sticks out. Oklo posted a net loss of $33.1 million for the first quarter, with operating losses at $51.2 million and operating cash burn of $17.9 million. The company’s cash, cash equivalents and marketable debt securities came in at $2.54 billion. Reuters said Democratic lawmakers have voiced proliferation worries about the plutonium plan, and Oklo has pointed to risks with fuel access, regulatory hurdles and building a market that still has no commercial project in operation.
Tuesday’s rally may depend on how fast regulators move. The NRC wants to speed up small-reactor licensing, but Bonita Chester, head of media and communications at Oklo, told Reuters Events that the rule change still puts a “substantial burden” on applicants. Adam Stein at the Breakthrough Institute said Part 53 could “completely change” reactor licensing if it’s applied the right way. Reuters
Oklo’s shares are moving on news, not profits right now. What comes next is whether fuel negotiations, DOE pilot updates and customer funding shift from news into actual permits, operating results, and power deals.
