Sam Altman-backed nuclear startup Oklo going public through OpenAI boss’ SPAC

A nuclear-fission startup company backed by Sam Altman has plans to go public thanks to a blank-check firm owned by the OpenAI boss, company officials said on Tuesday.

AltC Acquisition — a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) co-founded by Altman and former Citigroup banker Michael Klein in 2021 — will take Oklo Inc. public to sell electricity into the competitive energy market, The Wall Street Journal reported.

California-based Oklo is valued in the transaction at about $850 million.

The capital that Oklo raises ahead of going public will go towards bolstering its supply chain and procurement processes as well as building a pilot production facility, called the Aurora Powerhouse, according to CNBC.

AltC holds $500 million in cash that Oklo could use to expand the company, according to The Journal, though the figure is expected to drop as SPAC investors can pull their money out of the deal before it closes.

A SPAC is a shell company that looks to make private companies go public through mergers and acquisitions.

After regulators approve transactions, the public company replaces the SPAC in the stock market.

Altman “recused himself from all negotiations between the parties, and from all discussions and decisions of both the Oklo and AltC boards involving the transaction,” a spokesperson for AltC told the Financial Times.

Oklo has been working on developing the nuclear-fission technology — which can generate energy without greenhouse gas emissions — from as early as 2013.

Altman, the chairman of Oklo’s board and the co-founder behind AltC, has said that nuclear energy is the best way to combat climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

“I don’t see a way for us to get there without nuclear. I mean, maybe we could get there just with solar and storage,” Altman told CNBC.

“But from my vantage point, I feel like this is the most likely and the best way to get there.”

Oklo says it is seeking regulatory approval to deploy its first commercial reactor in Idaho before 2030.

The company said that its “powerhouses” can operate for decades without the need for refueling — unlike gas and coal plants that require frequent refueling and stock enough energy for just a few weeks at a time.

Oklo plans to sell energy through power purchase agreements whereby customers can buy power from its reactors by the megawatt-hour for a predetermined period.