Founded in 2013 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates Jacob DeWitte and Caroline Cochran, Oklo (OKLO -6.57%) is a nuclear power company that designs and develops small modular nuclear reactors with the goal of providing clean, affordable energy. The company plans to create small-scale nuclear power plants that run on nuclear waste.
The goal of the businesses is to commercialize and produce significant clean energy through nuclear fission technology at a global scale by developing modular reactors that can directly sell power to customers. Oklo has several project sites, including its first commercial fission power plant in the U.S., which will be located in Idaho. The fuel fabrication facility design concept for the plant has been approved by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The plant will be used to turn nuclear material into fuel, and the company hopes that the plant will be in operation before the end of the 2020s. Oklo's current technology includes a next-generation nuclear microreactor called the Aurora, which can produce 15 to 50 megawatts of electricity and operate for 10 years or longer before refueling.
Oklo plans to develop smaller reactors that can be deployed in numerous locations, including remote areas, differing from traditional large nuclear power plants. Management plans to sell directly to customers under long-term contracts, providing 24/7 clean energy to data centers, factories, industrial enterprises, defense facilities, and local communities. One of the most notable use cases that management foresees is using clean energy derived from nuclear waste to fuel the rapidly escalating demand for data center power caused by artificial intelligence (AI) adoption.
In May 2024, Oklo held its initial public offering (IPO) via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called AltC Acquisition Corp., owned and operated by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman. If you're interested in buying shares of this nuclear power business, here's what you need to know about how to invest in shares of Oklo stock, if the company is profitable, whether it pays a dividend, and more.
How to invest
How to buy Oklo stock
Oklo is publicly traded, so you can buy shares of the company like any other stock that you purchase through your brokerage account. You can buy whole or fractional shares of Oklo stock, although shares were trading for just around $20 at the end of 2024.
Step 1: Open your brokerage app
Log into your brokerage account where you handle your investments. If you don't have a brokerage account, you'll need to open one before you buy shares of Oklo. Opening a brokerage account takes just minutes. Once you have opened an account, you can deposit money to fund your purchase of Oklo or any other stock.
Step 2: Search for the stock
Enter the ticker OKLO or the company's name Oklo into the search bar to bring up the company's trading page. By this point, you should have your account fully set up, funded, and ready to buy shares.
Step 3: Decide how many shares to buy
Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to Oklo stock. The right budget to set for investing in Oklo will be very personal to you, as will your current financial situation and your long-term investing goals.
You should make sure you diversify your investment cash across a wide range of stocks, preferably companies from multiple industries and sectors. As a recent IPO and company that has technically yet to generate any business operations to date, it is unlikely you would want to make Oklo stock a sizable portion of your portfolio.
Step 4: Select order type
Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay. A market order fills your order at whatever price the stock is currently trading at, while a limit order allows you to set the maximum amount you're willing to pay.
The Fool recommends a market order since the order may not execute at all if the amount you specify is too low and shares don't reach that price.
Step 5: Submit your order
Before you buy shares of Oklo, consider the extent to which your current portfolio is diversified as you finalize the cash amount or number of shares you want to buy. By ensuring you have a diversified portfolio, you won't be overly exposed to a particular stock or sector. Research is an important part of the process of buying Oklo stock or any other company. You want to understand the industry the company operates in, as well as the business.
You should never invest money that you think you'll need in the near future for bills or other financial obligations. Ideally, you should work towards building a portfolio of 25 or more stocks across numerous industries and sectors. Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
Step 6: Review your purchase
Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected, and adjust your investment strategy accordingly. For a company like Oklo, a relatively new and extremely speculative nuclear stock, it might make more sense to give this stock a more modest position compared to your other holdings.
Stock
Should you invest?
Should I invest in Oklo?
Whether or not you should invest in Oklo will depend greatly on your investing style, where you are in your investing journey, your risk tolerance level, and the types of stocks you gravitate toward. If you are more risk averse or want to put cash into an established business, Oklo is unlikely to align with your preference of goals. On the other hand, if you have the risk appetite to put cash into very speculative nuclear stocks with considerable potential over the next five to 10 years, Oklo might make sense for your portfolio, assuming you already have a well-diversified basket of investments.
Bear in mind that Oklo has not officially engaged in any business operations or generated any revenue to date. It is still in the very nascent stages of commercializing its advanced nuclear reactor technology, so it still has to actively scale up operations to the point of being able to achieve revenue. However, this emerging growth company could pose considerable growth potential for long-term investors. The company is developing advanced nuclear power plants that run on nuclear waste to provide clean, reliable, and affordable energy.
Oklo has already received a site use permit from the U.S. Department of Energy and was granted fuel material from Idaho National Laboratory. It has also submitted the first advanced fission custom combined license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Idaho National Laboratory to develop advanced fuel recycling technologies. Once operational, Oklo plans for its primary product to be energy produced from its Aurora powerhouses.
Rather than selling its powerhouse designs, Oklo intends to sell energy to customers using power purchase agreements (PPAs) and generate stable, recurring revenue that way. PPAs are long-term contracts between a customer and an energy provider to buy energy at a predetermined price.
The PPA model is more common in the renewable energy space rather than in the traditional nuclear power industry. Most traditional nuclear power industry players sell or license reactor designs to large utility companies that construct and operate a power plant. Oklo intends to diverge from this established norm by designing, building, and operating smaller-scale powerhouses while following the PPA model.
The company also wants to tap into its nuclear fuel recycling capabilities and is developing technology that could see it launch its own a commercial fuel recycling facility in the U.S. by the 2030s. Management believes that the fast-growing world of artificial intelligence represents one of many potential commercial uses for its nuclear plants and technology.
Oklo has noted that AI tech behemoths like Amazon (AMZN -8.09%) and Microsoft (MSFT -1.75%) are shifting to nuclear energy to facilitate some of their data center power needs due to the tremendous boost in power that such heavy reliance on AI requires. Oklo just signed one of the largest corporate clean power agreements in history with Switch, a company that provides AI, cloud, and enterprise data centers, to deploy 12 gigawatts of Aurora powerhouse projects through 2044.
Oklo has a partnership with global data center and colocation giant Equinix (EQIX -1.71%) that includes a $25 million pre-payment for a future 20-year PPA for as much as 500 megawatts of power for its data centers. Oklo has also received a non-binding letter of intent from Prometheus Hyperscale, a leader in the hyperscale data center industry, to supply 100 megawatts of clean power to its data center campus under a 20-year PPA.
Profitability
Is Oklo profitable?
Oklo has not yet generated revenue or net income as it is still scaling its operations. As it is an early-stage nuclear power company, investors should likely not expect profits to enter the picture until sometime after 2030.
Dividends
Does Oklo pay a dividend?
Oklo does not pay a dividend. With no revenue or earnings at present, it is unlikely that the company's management will even consider paying a dividend for many years to come.
ETFs
ETFs with exposure to Oklo
If you would like to invest in the potential of a groundbreaking nuclear business like Oklo without buying individual shares, you can invest in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that contains the stock in its portfolio compositions. A few notable examples include the Global X Fds-Global X Uranium ETF (URA -2.9%), the VanEck ETF Trust-VanEck Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR -2.23%), and the ARK ETF Tr-ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ -2.54%)
A few index funds that also contain shares of Oklo worthy of mention include the Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund (VEXAX -2.05%) and the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI -1.6%).
Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF)
Stock splits
Will Oklo stock split?
Oklo only went public via SPAC in May 2024. It has not split its stock nor are there any announced plans for a stock split.
Related investing topics
The bottom line on Oklo
As an early-stage nuclear company designing and developing nuclear fission power plants to provide reliable and commercial-scale energy to customers across the country, Oklo is a tremendous opportunity if the company can execute on its goals. Its growth story has barely started, and investors who take a position in this stock now will be putting cash into the power of its potential rather than actual business operations.
Investors should be aware that it may be a few years before Oklo even brings in revenue. However, Oklo has a clear vision for its growth story and its business model and has already executed numerous power purchase agreements that would go into effect once its first Aurora nuclear power plant is up and running. Its first Aurora plant location is targeted for deployment in 2027 at the Idaho National Laboratory.
The company is likely to burn cash for years into the future, and profits will be elusive for the foreseeable horizon, as well. For investors wanting a slice of the action of the future of a disruptive nuclear power company that foresees producing clean and affordable energy from nuclear waste for everything from data centers to local communities, Oklo could be a stock worth betting on.
FAQ
Investing in Oklo FAQ
Can you invest in Oklo?
You can buy shares of Oklo through your brokerage account like you would any other stock.
Is Oklo publicly traded?
Oklo is publicly traded. The company went public via SPAC in May 2024.
Who are the largest investors in Oklo?
Oklo is owned by both institutional and individual investors. One notable individual investor is the co-founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman, who controlled approximately 6% of shares as of mid-2024.
What is the stock symbol for Oklo?
The stock symbol for Oklo is OKLO.
