--- title: "Nuclear Power Stocks Continue to Surge! X-Energy, Backed by Amazon, Soars 27% on IPO Debut" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/284082455.md" description: "Nuclear power services provider X-Energy surged 27% on its Nasdaq debut Friday, closing at $29.20 with a market cap of $11.5 billion. Benefiting from the explosive demand for AI-driven electricity, its IPO pricing exceeded expectations, raising over $1 billion. Amazon, as a major shareholder and customer, has committed to a 5-gigawatt order. Despite losses in 2025 and commercialization still years away, early investors like Ken Griffin and Ares have already secured several-fold paper gains" datetime: "2026-04-25T12:33:50.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/284082455.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284082455.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/284082455.md) --- # Nuclear Power Stocks Continue to Surge! X-Energy, Backed by Amazon, Soars 27% on IPO Debut The nuclear energy sector hype shows no signs of fading. Small modular reactor developer X-Energy soared 27% on its first day of listing on Nasdaq, closing at $29.20 with a market capitalization of approximately $11.5 billion. Less than three years ago, the company had abandoned its IPO plans due to lack of interest, but today it has made a stunning turnaround fueled by the wave of AI-driven electricity demand. X-Energy's final IPO price was set at $23, exceeding the previously expected range of $16 to $19. The company raised over $1 billion, far surpassing the original planned scale of approximately $694 million. Shares opened Friday at $30.11, jumping more than 30% above the offering price, before pulling back slightly during trading and closing up 27%. This listing has resulted in significant paper gains for several prominent early investors. Citadel founder Ken Griffin invested approximately $100 million about a year and a half ago; based on the closing price, his paper profits exceed $300 million. Asset management firm Ares Management invested over $160 million, with expected paper returns exceeding four times. **Amazon is currently X-Energy's largest shareholder, holding approximately 24.9%;** its shares appreciated by over $400 million compared to the IPO offering price based on the closing price. X-Energy's listing also had a spillover effect on similar competitors: Oklo fell 7.1%, NuScale Power dropped 6%, while Constellation Energy bucked the trend with a 7.1% rise. ## IPO Oversubscribed, Pricing Significantly Above Expected Range X-Energy finalized its pricing late Thursday evening, selling 44.25 million shares at a final offering price of $23, higher than the upper limit of the previous expected range of $16 to $19. With a total share count of approximately 395.3 million, the company's market capitalization calculated at the offering price was about $9.09 billion. After the first-day close, the market cap expanded further to approximately $11.5 billion. Company CEO J. Clay Sell stated on the day of the listing: "I believe investors are impressed by our recognition from top-tier clients; we have high-quality partners with strong balance sheets." The IPO received dual enthusiasm from both institutional and retail investors. The opening price of $30.11 for X-Energy's IPO indicates that not only did early institutional allocators participate actively, but the general public also rushed in enthusiastically. ## Griffin and Ares: High Returns Triggered by a Single Speech Behind this IPO lies a dramatic investment journey for Ken Griffin and Ares Management. According to media reports citing insiders, Griffin delivered a speech in Singapore in 2023 outlining the importance of nuclear energy in meeting the emerging electricity demands of data centers. Upon learning of this, David Kaplan, co-founder of Ares Management, prompted bankers seeking funding for X-Energy to contact Griffin. Griffin invested $100 million in X-Energy in the fall of 2024. Based on Friday's closing price, his paper profits exceed $300 million. For Ares, the investment led by Kaplan and partner Allyson Satin ultimately yielded paper returns exceeding four times. Additionally, Point72 under Steve Cohen, Jane Street, ARK Invest under Cathie Wood, and the University of Michigan all participated in the investment and will benefit from this IPO. ## From SPAC Failure to AI Power Darling X-Energy was founded in 2009 by Kamal "Kam" Ghaffarian, a veteran of the aerospace industry, and is headquartered in Maryland. For years, it has focused on developing industrial-grade modular nuclear reactors designed to power facilities such as factories. In 2022, the company signed an agreement with Dow Chemical to install a nuclear reactor at its Seadrift plant in Texas, but investors at the time widely worried that its potential market was too limited. In December 2022, Ares led a $30 million round alongside two hedge funds to launch an IPO plan, intending to go public via a merger with a blank-check company under Ares. However, as market enthusiasm for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) plummeted and caution regarding new issuances spread, this merger plan collapsed in October 2023. Thereafter, Ares continued to inject capital, accompanying the company through the downturn. **The explosion in AI computing power demand became the turning point for X-Energy.** In 2024, Amazon became both a shareholder and customer of X-Energy, committing to over 5 gigawatts of new nuclear energy supply. Hyperscale cloud giants including Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, which require ever-increasing amounts of electricity to support massive data center operations, have driven a rapid surge in interest in nuclear energy. ## Commercial Progress and Competitive Landscape Compared to most early-stage nuclear energy companies still in the conceptual phase, X-Energy's standout advantage lies in having substantive commercial orders. **Its customers include Amazon, Dow Chemical, and UK energy service provider Centrica, all of whom have signed power supply agreements.** J. Clay Sell stated that the company expects to receive regulatory approval for its first reactor this year, which will be built at Dow Chemical's Texas facility and is scheduled to begin operations in the early 2030s. Subsequently, the company will build a reactor for Amazon in Washington state. However, X-Energy still faces several years before completing its first reactor and obtaining full regulatory approval. It reported a net loss of $388.9 million in 2025, with revenue and grant income totaling approximately $109.1 million. The company faces competition from TerraPower backed by Bill Gates, Oklo, and NuScale Power. ## Strong First-Day Gains Do Not Necessarily Predict Long-Term Returns For individual investors considering entering the market, market data offers some sobering reference points. According to Thomas Shipp, Head of Research at LPL Financial, analysis of approximately 1,500 IPOs over the past 30 years shows that the median return for buying at the first-day closing price was negative 4.7%. Among these samples, 53.9% incurred losses, with an average loss of 39.2%. Compared to the S&P 500 Index, the median outperformance was negative 12.5%. Shipp wrote in the research report: "The conclusion for investors is not to completely avoid IPOs, but to participate with a prudent attitude and prepare mentally for significant volatility." X-Energy's listing marks another addition to the nuclear IPO market. While investors enjoy the nuclear narrative and the benefits of AI-driven electricity demand, they must also confront real risks such as long technology commercialization cycles, lingering regulatory uncertainties, and high stock price volatility in the early stages of listing. ### Related Stocks - [AMZN.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZN.US.md) - [AMZU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZU.US.md) - [AMZZ.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZZ.US.md) - [ARES.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/ARES.US.md) - [OKLO.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/OKLO.US.md) - [SMR.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SMR.US.md) - [CEG.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CEG.US.md) - [DOW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DOW.US.md) - [MSFT.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFT.US.md) - [META.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/META.US.md) - [CNA.UK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CNA.UK.md) - [LPLA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/LPLA.US.md) - [.SPX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/.SPX.US.md) - [ARES-B.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/ARES-B.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [BUZZ-Amazon-backed X-Energy set to jump in debut after boosted $1 bln IPO](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284023653.md) - [X-Energy Stock Opens 31% Above IPO Price As Amazon-Backed Nuclear Play Hits Nasdaq](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284051516.md) - [Anthropic Commits $100B to AWS as Amazon Bets Up to $25B on AI Partner. 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