Oklo Surges 5%, NuScale Power Climbs 3% as Nuclear Energy Stocks Draw Fresh Attention

Oklo (OKLO) stock is up 5% in early trading Tuesday, recovering from a 16.82% year-to-date decline as nuclear energy stocks draw renewed interest from investors focused on AI data center power demand.
NuScale Power (SMR) stock is rising 3%, joining Oklo in a sector-wide lift as small modular reactor plays attract fresh attention from both institutional and retail investors.
Both companies remain pre-commercial development-stage businesses, meaning today’s moves are driven by sentiment and macro tailwinds rather than earnings momentum.
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Oklo (NYSE:OKLO) stock advanced 5% Tuesday morning, with shares testing the $63 level after closing Monday at $59.69. In a more muted move, NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) stock rose 3% with shares moving toward $12.50 after previously closing at $11.97.
The moves come as nuclear energy broadly draws fresh investor attention, with AI-driven data center power demand and bipartisan U.S. government support for clean baseload energy serving as the dominant tailwinds. Both companies sit at the intersection of two of the market's most active themes right now: clean energy infrastructure and the AI power buildout.
Most Americans drastically underestimate how much they need to retire and overestimate how prepared they are. But data shows that people with one habit have more than double the savings of those who don’t.
Neither catalyst is new, but the market's appetite for the story keeps cycling back.
Nuclear Sector Tailwinds Lift Both Names
The backdrop driving today's move is well established. Goldman Sachs projects a 165% increase in data center power demand by 2030, and nuclear is increasingly viewed as the only clean energy source capable of delivering the kind of firm, always-on baseload power that hyperscalers actually need.
Solar and wind can't do it alone, and natural gas carries carbon baggage. Nuclear is the answer a growing number of tech companies are arriving at.
Oklo has positioned itself directly in that conversation. The company has a customer pipeline of approximately 14 gigawatts, anchored by a landmark 12 gigawatt agreement with Switch for data center power and a letter of intent with Equinix for 500 megawatts with a $25 million pre-payment.
A recent Reddit due diligence post on r/wallstreetbets also flagged a Meta partnership for a 1.2 gigawatt Nuclear Energy Development agreement in Southern Ohio and an expanded pipeline of 18 gigawatts of memorandums of understanding as key signals that the MOU-to-contract conversion story is gaining traction.
NuScale Power, meanwhile, brings a different but complementary angle. It holds the distinction of being the first and only small modular reactor technology to receive U.S. NRC design approval, including its uprated 77 MWe NuScale Power Module. Furthermore, NuScale's partnership with ENTRA1 Energy and TVA to deploy up to 6 gigawatts of SMR capacity across TVA's seven-state service region has been described as the largest SMR deployment program in U.S. history.
Context: A Bounce Off a Rough Stretch
Today's premarket gains arrive after a difficult stretch for both names. Oklo stock was down 24% just weeks ago, and the stock remains down 12% year-to-date. NuScale Power has had it rougher on a longer timeframe, down 14% year-to-date currently. Still, Oklo is up 125% over the past year, a reminder of just how volatile this sector can be in both directions.
The retail community remains deeply engaged with Oklo stock in particular. A high-conviction post on r/wallstreetbets this week laid out a $250 price target by July 4, citing near-term catalysts including first revenue expected via radioisotope production at Idaho National Laboratory and the Atomic Alchemy reactor expected to achieve criticality on July 4. The author's prior calls have been directionally accurate, though the stock has pulled back sharply from its $194 peak. Analyst consensus sits at a $130 average price target with a range of $90 to $175.
Bulls and bears remain split on the core question: can these companies convert their impressive pipeline and regulatory positioning into actual revenue before capital runs thin? Oklo ended 2024 with $275.3 million in cash and marketable securities and an operating cash burn of $38.4 million for the full year. NuScale Power carries a stronger cash position of $836.4 million, though its full-year 2025 net loss came in at $355.79 million, heavily impacted by a $507.4 million Milestone Contribution 1 payment to ENTRA1.
What to Watch
CEO Jacob DeWitte has framed Oklo's moment succinctly. He stated, "The world is catching up to what we've known all along: nuclear power is essential to a clean, dependable, and scalable energy future."
Whether today's premarket gains hold into the close will be the first test of whether this latest wave of nuclear enthusiasm has legs or fades like prior ones. Watch for any additional partnership announcements or regulatory updates from Oklo and NuScale Power, as those have historically been the sharpest near-term catalysts for both stocks.
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