Nuclear fission company Oklo is going public! Backed by Altman, co-founder of OpenAI.

On Tuesday, nuclear fission startup Oklo Inc. and special purpose acquisition company AltC Acquisition Corp. announced that they have reached a final agreement to merge their businesses and go public through a SPAC. After the completion of the transaction, the merged company will operate under the name Oklo and is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol "Oklo".

Oklo is backed by a team of leading technologists and decarbonization investors, including Sam Altman, who has served as Chairman of Oklo since 2015. Altman is also the co-founder and CEO of AltC. AltC was jointly founded by Altman and Churchill Capital in July 2021. Altman is best known as the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, a subsidiary of OpenAI that gained significant attention this year.

Oklo is headquartered in California, United States, and aims to provide clean, reliable, and affordable energy globally through the design and deployment of next-generation fast reactor technology. Oklo is developing small modular nuclear reactors and plans to deliver its first reactor in Idaho and Ohio, subject to strict licensing procedures by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Oklo is also exploring potential advanced fuel recycling technology to convert waste fuel into clean energy. Oklo is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy and national laboratories to develop nuclear fuel recycling technology for its reactors and other reactors.

Oklo follows an owner-operator model and plans to sell electricity directly to customers under long-term contracts to generate recurring revenue.

Nuclear fission can generate energy without emitting greenhouse gases. Unlike other technologies such as solar power, it can generate electricity continuously 24 hours a day. The process of splitting atoms in nuclear fission power plants can provide nearly 20% of the electricity in the United States.

The IPO transaction of Oklo is expected to raise $500 million in funding, and the net proceeds, after deducting various expenses, will be used to accelerate Oklo's business plans and provide funding for the initial deployment of the Aurora power plant.

The pre-money equity value of Oklo is approximately $850 million. Pre-money equity value refers to the value of a company before it goes public or receives other investments, such as external funding or financing. Potential investors can use the pre-money equity value of a company to determine its worth before making an investment. The valuation of $850 million provides an attractive entry point for AltC shareholders, approximately half the value of similar clean energy IPO transactions.

Existing shareholders of Oklo will transfer 100% of their equity to the merged company. AltC's investors will subject their retained 100% founder's equity to performance evaluation, meaning that AltC's founders must achieve certain performance metrics to fully obtain the corresponding equity. It should be noted that Oklo's listing this time is done through a SPAC. SPAC transactions have a bad reputation for enriching insiders at the expense of other investors. At least a dozen startups that went public during the SPAC frenzy have filed for bankruptcy, and many other companies are burning cash.

However, even in the high-risk field of SPACs, it is not common for companies like Oklo to go public by merging with their own blank-check company. Although not unprecedented, this raises concerns among other shareholders.

AltC is approaching the deadline to complete the transaction, by which time the company must return cash to investors. AltC and Oklo have stated that they have been working on this deal for nine months, and AltC has signed a letter of intent to extend the deadline by three months. Therefore, the timing of the merger has raised questions. Insiders such as Altman, the founder of Oklo, have agreed to hold their shares for a long time after the completion of the transaction.

In addition to Oklo, Altman is also a supporter of the nuclear fusion power company Helion Energy. In May of this year, Microsoft agreed to purchase power from Helion within approximately five years. Helion has committed to demonstrate the ability to generate power through nuclear fusion next year, to achieve commercial fusion power by 2028, and to provide Microsoft with at least 50 megawatts of power one year later, or else face financial penalties. Given that neither Helion nor anyone else in the world has yet produced electricity through nuclear fusion, this commitment is very bold.

Altman believes that the production of electricity in the nuclear energy industry can be more cost-effective than any other industry. The goal of making artificial intelligence and energy cheap and abundant is closely linked. Future AI systems will require a large amount of energy, and nuclear fission and fusion can help provide that energy. As AI advances, it will contribute to the design of nuclear systems.