Nuclear startup X-energy began its investor roadshow on Wednesday as it works toward its initial public offering, setting its price target between $16 and $19 per share, according to documents submitted with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. If listed at the high end, the startup could generate around $814 million.
energy and their peers have been riding a renewed wave of interest in fission energy as demand for electricity has increased thanks to artificial intelligence data centers and the electrification of all of society.
Amazon is one of the largest sponsors of X-energy. The tech giant led a $500 million Series C-1 round and committed to buy up to 5 gigawatts of nuclear energy by 2039.
The IPO will surely come as a relief to X-energy investors, who have invested around $1.8 billion in the company, according to PitchBook. The startup had previously attempted to go public through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, but the two parties canceled the deal in 2023, when the SPAC craze runs out.
The X-energy reactor is what is known as a gas-cooled high-temperature reactor. Inside, uranium encased in carbon-ceramic spheres is cooled with helium gas. The gas then transfers heat to a steam turbine circuit to generate electricity. The fuel design, known as TRISO, is expected to be safer than previous fuel systems, although it is not widely used today.
The startup said in your filing with the SEC which is already embroiled in a patent dispute with another company that recently went bankrupt. Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) went bankrupt in 2024 and its assets were purchased out of bankruptcy to form Nuclear Standard. X-energy alleges that USNC infringed its fuel manufacturing patents and that the matter was not satisfactorily resolved during the course of the bankruptcy proceedings.
Outside China, development of new nuclear reactors has virtually stalled, hampered by delays and cost overruns. A new generation of startups hopes that by shrinking reactors they can overcome some of the challenges that have beset traditional designs.
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None of the small modular reactor startups have yet built a power plant, although several are racing to meet the July 4 deadline set by the Trump administration.
While many might miss the arbitrary deadline, they are still likely to reach criticality, the point at which fission reactions become self-sustaining.
But the road from criticality to profitable power plants is likely to be long. Mass manufacturing can help reduce costs, but typically requires about a decade so that the process begins to pay dividends. What’s more, the number of reactors these companies plan to build might be higher than what other companies have attempted, but it might not be high enough to reap the true benefits of mass manufacturing.
X-energy hopes that when its reactor production techniques are mature (what experts call the “nth of its kind”) it will be able to reduce costs by 30% relative to the first of its kind. Investors should pay close attention to how much that first reactor costs. It could make or break the company’s prospects.
