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Amazon-backed X-energy jumps 27% after $1.02b IPO
X-Energy raised US$1.02 billion in an upsized Nasdaq IPO, with shares closing 27% above the US$23 offer price at US$29.20 on April 24.
The Amazon-backed firm priced above its marketed US$16 to US$19 range, giving it a market value of about US$11.6 billion, while filings show a 2025 net loss of about US$390 million on US$94 million in revenue, excluding grants.
X-Energy is racing to bring a US small modular reactor to market by the early 2030s and has agreements with Dow, Amazon, and Centrica to supply power for industrial sites and AI data centers.
🔗 Source: Bloomberg
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
A rare fuel plant approval gives investors more confidence
- The IPO rests on more than reactor plans. X-Energy’s wholly owned subsidiary TRISO-X won a 40-year Part 70 Special Nuclear Material license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the federal nuclear regulator, for its advanced nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee 1.
- It is the first new nuclear fuel fabrication license the NRC has issued in about 50 years, and the first Category II fuel fabrication license from the agency 1.
- The NRC cleared the license three months ahead of schedule, adding to signs of faster regulatory movement 1.
- The plant is under construction in Tennessee. It is expected to make TRISO fuel, a durable nuclear fuel for high-temperature reactors, for X-Energy’s Xe-100 reactor and other advanced nuclear reactor companies 1.
SMRs are turning into strategic infrastructure for tech and industry
- Recent agreements suggest small modular reactors (SMRs) are moving beyond the grid and into direct use by large companies.
- Amazon plans to develop more than 5 gigawatts (GW) of new power projects with X-Energy across the U.S. by 2039. Amazon calls that the largest commercial SMR deployment target to date, aimed at carbon-free energy for its operations including data centers 2.
- Dow has applied for a construction permit for four Xe-100 reactors at its manufacturing facility in Seadrift, Texas. The project is expected to become the first manufacturing site in North America powered by nuclear energy 1.
- For companies, SMRs are becoming a way to lock in steady power for data centers, electrification, and heavy industry 3.
