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According to TechCrunch, the nuclear energy startup X-energy has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2026, outlining ambitious plans for an initial public offering (IPO). The company is targeting a price range of $16 to $19 per share, which would raise about $814 million if the top end of the range is reached.
The filing comes as fission-based nuclear developers face a growing opportunity driven by surging energy demand, including power needs for AI data centers, alongside broader efforts to electrify the economy in 2025-2026.
Amazon is among X-energy’s largest investors. The tech giant led a $500 million Series C-1 round and has also pledged to buy up to 5 gigawatts of nuclear power from the startup before 2039.
PitchBook data cited in the report put total capital invested in X-energy at about $1.8 billion. The IPO would also provide liquidity for existing shareholders after plans to go public via SPAC were scrapped in 2023.
X-energy’s approach is based on a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) technology. The system uses TRISO fuel—uranium encased in ceramic and carbon—cooled by helium, with heat then transferred to a steam turbine to generate electricity.
While the design is expected to be safer than earlier configurations, it has not yet been deployed widely at commercial scale. The SEC filing also indicates the company is involved in a patent dispute with Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC).
After USNC’s bankruptcy in 2024, its assets were acquired to form Standard Nuclear. X-energy alleges patent infringement related to fuel fabrication, and the matter remains unresolved in the ongoing liquidation.
Beyond China, construction of conventional nuclear plants has largely stalled due to delays and cost overruns. This environment has encouraged startups to pivot toward small modular reactor (SMR) designs intended to optimize costs and reduce construction risk.
However, no SMR startup has completed a commercial-scale plant. Several companies are racing to meet U.S. government timelines to reach “criticality,” the point at which a fission reaction can sustain itself. Even after achieving that milestone, the path to monetizing a next-generation plant is described as long, with mass production taking roughly a decade to fully optimize costs.
The report also notes that the number of reactors startups expect to build may be insufficient to fully realize scale economies. X-energy expects costs could fall by about 30% once manufacturing matures, making the cost-efficiency of the first plant a key factor in its financial prospects.
Source: TechCrunch
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