Oklo says Groves test reactor reached criticality in under a year

Oklo shares climbed nearly 8% on Friday after the advanced nuclear company reported its first-ever quarterly revenue of $1.21 million, well above analyst estimates, even as it posted a wider-than-expected loss of $0.28 per share. The update added new financial guidance for 2026, with operating cash flow projected at $120 million to $150 million and capital expenditures of $400 million to $500 million, while cash and cash equivalents stood at $1.6 billion at the end of the second quarter. The company said it remains focused on deploying its first Aurora powerhouse by 2028 and highlighted progress at Idaho National Laboratory, where it secured a site use permit from the U.S. Department of Energy and received an allocation of five metric tons of HALEU produced from recovered uranium from previously irradiated EBR-II fuel for a commercial Aurora powerhouse in Idaho. Oklo said it has also submitted the Nuclear Safety Design Agreement and Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis for the Aurora-INL project, covering two of the five stages in the DOE regulatory pathway for nuclear facility operations. During the quarter, Oklo announced AI-focused collaborations with NVIDIA, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Battelle Energy Alliance tied to reactor design, simulation, fuel development, engineering workflows and its Pluto reactor system under the DOE's Reactor Pilot Program. It also pointed to a growing customer pipeline, including non-binding letters of intent with Equinix, Diamondback Energy and Prometheus Hyperscale, a 12 GW Master Power Agreement with Switch signed in December 2024, a January 2026 prepayment agreement with Meta for a 1.2 GW Ohio power campus for data centers, and a June 2026 letter of intent with Centrus Energy covering potential HALEU fuel supply for up to five Aurora powerhouses starting in 2029. These additions build on Oklo's earlier disclosure that its Groves Isotope Test Reactor in Texas reached first criticality in less than a year after groundbreaking, a milestone the company has said could help inform future Aurora deployments and broader nuclear commercialization.