Oklo Inc. is an advanced nuclear technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Founded in 2013 by Jacob DeWitte and Caroline Cochran, both graduates of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT), the company designs

compact Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact, a type of agreement used by U.S. states * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a t ...

fast reactors with the aim of providing clean, safe, and affordable energy.

OpenAI OpenAI, Inc. is an American artificial intelligence (AI) organization founded in December 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. It aims to develop "safe and beneficial" artificial general intelligence (AGI), which it defines ...

co-founder

Sam Altman Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American technology entrepreneur, investor, and the chief executive officer of OpenAI since 2019 (he was Removal of Sam Altman from OpenAI, briefly dismissed and reinstated in November 2023). He ...

stepped down as chairman on April 2025 to "avoid a conflict of interest ahead of talks between his company and the nuclear start-up on an energy supply agreement." The company's name is derived from

Oklo Oklo is a region near Franceville in the Haut-Ogooué Province of Gabon. Several natural nuclear fission reactors were discovered in the uranium mines in the region in 1972. History Gabon was a French colony when prospectors from the Comm ...

, a region in the country of

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

, Africa where self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions occurred approximately 1.7 billion years ago. Oklo's business model is focused on selling power to customers, and its main product line for producing power is the

Aurora nuclear reactor The Aurora powerhouse is an advanced fission plant concept design that received a site use permit for testing in 2020 from the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The site use permit, issued in December 2019 is not a Nuclear Regulatory Commi ...

powerhouse product line. The Aurora powerhouse is a design for a small power plant to generate 15-50 MWe of electrical power via a

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

or similar power generation system and utilizing a compact fast neutron reactor to produce heat. Fast reactors were first implemented in the 1950s, with around 20 in operation at a time, demonstrating safety benefits over

thermal-neutron reactor A thermal-neutron reactor is a nuclear reactor that uses slow or thermal neutrons. ("Thermal" does not mean hot in an absolute sense, but means in thermal equilibrium with the medium it is interacting with, the reactor's fuel, moderator and struct ...

s. The Aurora is intended for off-grid applications, including

data centers A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer, computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and computer data storage, storage systems. Since IT opera ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

, remote communities, industrial sites, and

military bases A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...

. It will be able to operate for up to 10 years without refueling. Oklo also intends to produce

radioisotopes A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, giving it excess nuclear energy, and making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ...

through its nuclear fuel recycling process and fast reactor technology. These radioisotopes have a wide range of applications, including medical

diagnostic imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to revea ...

and

cancer treatment Cancer treatments are a wide range of treatments available for the many different types of cancer, with each cancer type needing its own specific treatment. Treatments can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targ ...

; industrial uses like

non-destructive testing Nondestructive testing (NDT) is any of a wide group of analysis techniques used in science and technology industry to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage. The terms nondestructive examination (NDE), n ...

and

process control Industrial process control (IPC) or simply process control is a system used in modern manufacturing which uses the principles of control theory and physical industrial control systems to monitor, control and optimize continuous Industrial processe ...

; and energy applications including

radioisotope thermoelectric generators A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), or radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electr ...

, nuclear batteries and fusion research. As a liquid metal cooled fast reactor, the Aurora powerhouse will possess a number of advantages in terms of its operation and safety. The Aurora has strongly negative reactivity feedback coefficients which emerge from the system's physics. These inherent feedback mechanisms will reduce reactor power in response to temperature excursions without any operator intervention or active safety systems. This was demonstrated in the Shutdown Heat Removal Test series at Experimental Breeder Reactor-II, a sodium fast reactor operated between 1964 and 1994 that inspired much of the design of the Aurora powerhouse. Oklo's application for a combined construction and operating license for the Aurora powerhouse was initially denied by the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the ...

(NRC) on January 6th, 2022. The NRC cited a lack of information provided by Oklo during the application process and that Oklo could re-submit in the future. Oklo plans to build its first Aurora powerhouse at

Idaho National Laboratory Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is one of the national laboratories of the United States Department of Energy and is managed by the Battelle Energy Alliance. Historically, the lab has been involved with nuclear research, although the labora ...

in 2027. Oklo has also signed

letters of intent A letter of intent (LOI or LoI, or Letter of Intent) is a document outlining the understanding between two or more parties which they intend to formalize in a legally binding agreement. The concept is similar to a heads of agreement, term she ...

with

Diamondback Energy Diamondback Energy is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration headquartered in Midland, Texas. As of December 31, 2020, the company had of estimated proved reserves, of which 52% was petroleum, 24% was natural gas, and 24% was ...

and Wyoming Hyperscale to provide electricity for Diamondback's Permian Basin operations and Wyoming Hyperscale's data center campus over 20-year periods. The company has received

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

from various investors, including Hydrazine Capital, founded by Sam Altman with

Peter Thiel Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. According ...

as its sole limited partner; Facebook co-founder

Dustin Moskovitz Dustin Aaron Moskovitz (; born May 22, 1984) is an American billionaire internet entrepreneur who co-founded Facebook, Inc. (now known as Meta Platforms) with Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes. In 2008, he left F ...

;

Ron Conway Ronald Crawford Conway (born March 9, 1951) is an American venture capitalist and philanthropist. He has been described as one of Silicon Valley's " super angels". He is co-founder of SV Angel. Early career Conway graduated from San Jose State ...

SV Angel SV Angel Management LLC (SVA) is an American venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm focuses on investments related to the AI, software and IT sectors. Background Until mid-2009, Ron Conway made most of his investme ...

; Kevin Efrusy of

Accel Partners Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is a global venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional ope ...

; and

Tim Draper Timothy Cook Draper (born June 11, 1958) is an American venture capital investor, and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ),

of Draper Associates. In July 2023, it was announced that the company planned to go public via a special purpose acquisition company at a value of $850 million. On May 10, 2024, Oklo merged with AltC Acquisition Corp, a SPAC founded and led by Sam Altman, receiving $306 millions in gross proceeds. In May 2025, Reuters reported that Oklo was among several advanced nuclear developers aiming to fast-track deployment at

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear we ...

sites, including

, as part of a federal initiative to power AI data centers with nuclear energy.

References

External links

Oklo.com
{{energy-company-stub American companies established in 2013 Companies based in Santa Clara, California Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Nuclear power companies of the United States Special-purpose acquisition companies