Amazon-backed nuclear reactor group X-energy files for IPO
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An Amazon-backed small modular nuclear reactor company is filing for an initial public offering amid rising investor interest in nuclear energy. X-energy submitted a draft registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, putting it on track to go public sometime in the early summer. The IPO would be the latest for developers of small modular nuclear reactors, which have been touted as a potential solution for rapid electricity demand growth caused largely by data centres, but also the electrification of cars and household appliances. According to data from BloombergNEF, US data centre power demand is set to climb from 34.7 gigawatts in 2024 to 106GW by 2035. X-energy is building an SMR that uses helium as a coolant instead of water, the industry standard. Supplies of helium have been severely disrupted by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran war, pushing up commercial prices. “Spot helium prices could spike by 50 per cent to 200 per cent in severe shortage scenarios,” according to Fitch analysts. Amazon backed the company in October 2024, anchoring a $400mn fundraising round along with Citadel’s Ken Griffin. The ecommerce giant took two seats on the company’s board. In November X-energy completed a $700mn fundraising round led by Jane Street, ARK Invest, Galvanize, Hood River Capital Management, Point 72, Reaves Asset Management and XTX Ventures. In addition to Amazon, it has secured contracts with FTSE 100-listed Centrica and Dow. While X-energy has not received full approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build its reactor, in February the agency licensed the company to make nuclear fuel for advanced reactors at a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. X-energy declined to state how much it is seeking to raise, or how its shares would be priced. JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies and Moelis and Company are acting as the lead bookrunners. X-energy would be the fourth publicly traded SMR company, following Nano Nuclear, NuScale Energy and Sam Altman-backed Oklo. Oklo’s stock price has gained 94 per cent over the past year. But Nano and NuScale have lost ground, falling 32 and 27 per cent respectively. Recommended The Big Read The cost of America’s nuclear revival The filing comes as Wall Street investment bankers are gearing up for a series of potentially huge listings later this year. Elon Musk’s rocket group SpaceX and AI start-ups Anthropic and OpenAI have all indicated plans to go public at some point in 2026. Each of the three deals is expected to raise tens of billions of dollars in proceeds, potentially outstripping the total haul from about 200 US IPOs in 2025. Market volatility triggered by the war in Iran could yet scupper bankers’ pipeline, however, just as the economic turmoil sparked by President Donald Trump’s so-called liberation day tariffs last April put several large US tech listings on pause.
(Arnie Gundersen)
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