Nuclear reactor company X-energy shares surge 26% as AI drives interest in its IPO

x-energy shares jumped 26% on its first trading day friday. the stock opened at $30.11 after pricing at $23 per share — well above its initial $16-$19 range. the company raised over $1 billion in what's the largest nuclear public offering on record. x-energy makes the xe-100, an 80-megawatt high-temperature gas-cooled reactor that can be bundled up to 960 megawatts. unlike all current u.s. reactors, which are light water, the xe-100's heat can also power industrial uses like chemical production. the company hasn't built any reactors yet but has an 11-gigawatt order pipeline from amazon, dow, and centrica. prior to going public, x-energy raised over $1.4 billion from backers including amazon, jane street, ark invest, ken griffin, and the u.s. department of energy. it's the first sizable advanced reactor company to go traditional ipo — competitors oklo and nuspace used spac mergers. x-energy abandoned its own spac plan in 2023. the company licenses its tech rather than owning plants, and sells nuclear fuel from its tennessee fabrication facility. it filed a construction permit with the nrc in march 2025 for a texas project with dow, a process expected to take 18 months.