Is Oklo the Best Investment in Advanced Nuclear Energy in 2026?

TradingKey - Oklo Inc. (OKLO) is an advanced nuclear technology organization working on fast fission power plants, the ability to produce isotopes, and the recycling of nuclear fuel. Its strategy is to sell electricity generated by its Aurora power plants, using internally manufactured fuel to support those power plants. 

This vertical integration increases Oklo’s supply reliability and supports its many recent initiatives to manufacture fuel and produce isotopes to complement its core business.

Why Oklo Stock Rallied in 2025

As far as nuclear energy investments go, Oklo is one of the best-performing stocks in this sector in 2025. Investor interest was spurred after President Trump's executive orders were signed in mid 2025 - what he called a nuclear renaissance in America (putting a policy tailwind behind both the DOE's reactor pilots and fuel infrastructure). 

Oklo has positioned itself favorably within that movement through the company’s participation in four of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) reactor pilot programs and also broke ground on its first Aurora plant at the Idaho National Laboratory as part of a DOE pilot program in September 2025. 

Additionally, Oklo has further aligned itself with government initiatives by establishing a dedicated fuel recycling plant in Tennessee that will be used to recycle the surplus plutonium from the U.S. to create commercial nuclear fuels.

Oklo has also forged new partnerships through its 12-gigawatt energy supply contract with Switch (one of the largest data center operators) and with France's Newcleo (a $2 billion joint venture to create fuel fabrication facilities in the U.S.). 

Overall, all these developments continue to build on Oklo’s vision for creating an energy-efficient, vertically integrated platform to meet the power demands of the growing number of data centers being created for the purpose of developing AI technologies.

Financial Position, Spending Plans, and Operations

As of the end of the most recent quarter, Oklo had roughly $2.6 billion of liquidity available after the quarter, thereby providing resources for transitioning from concept and licensing work to execution-heavy activities. Management provided guidance for higher-than-expected operating expenses for Q4 and indicated that it will spend $350–450 million for investment cash in 2026 to develop fuel facilities and build plants. 

Initial construction on fuel facilities has already started, and the milestones supporting Atomic Alchemy's isotope operations provide additional evidence of the development of the overall platform. The continued business model remains simple: sell electricity generated by Aurora facilities, but recycled fuel will become the key differentiation that can potentially reduce cost and stabilize supply for those facilities.

Risks Around Oklo and AI Energy

Creating advanced nuclear capabilities requires significant effort and cost. Oklo has indicated that they will require large amounts of capital to operate over a longer time frame before they have cash flow from operations begin generating revenues. 

UBS indicated that there is the potential for delays and cost overruns in the construction period. These two items can cause pressures on the company's financial results even if there are currently sufficient funds; notably, the period in which those are produced will be at the end of the construction and thus during the time of meeting regulatory milestones and commissioning a fuel facility.

Should You Buy Oklo Stock Now?

The easiest way to consider Oklo today is to balance out the company's vertical integration and its early commercial wins with the costs and timelines to convert their pilots into operating plants. 

Based on Oklo's collaborations, advances they’ve made with DOE, and pre-payment agreements. These are the three main reasons why some risk-tolerant individuals look at building a long-term position in Oklo. 

Meanwhile, banks are taking more of a wait-and-see approach to see how Oklo moves ahead before investing new capital. We think Oklo has good long-term potential, however, we see other AI stocks that have more upside potential over the near term and are much less likely to have any downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is both extremely undervalued & will benefit from the tariffs from the Trump era and will also benefit from the onshoring trend, then please check out our free report on the best short-term AI stock.