Oklo Looks Stronger as a Long-Term Energy Play Thanks to 2 Major Growth Drivers

Jabran Kundi

Tue, May 19, 2026 at 9:35 AM EDT 4 min read

Despite an increasing investor interest in AI power infrastructure, Oklo (OKLO) stock has been experiencing a downtrend that doesn’t seem to stop. One reason for this is the heavy discount to future cash flows that the market seems to be giving energy stocks like Oklo. As high as the demand is for power, the fact remains that Oklo will be unable to deliver a single watt of power before 2027.

Once the initial hype subsided, the market started rewarding players who had already started shipping products to the market. Take Bloom Energy (BE), for instance. The stock is up nearly 1,300% in a year, having doubled in the last month alone. The reasoning is simple: Market participants are rewarding companies that are solving the AI power problem today, rather than attempting to do it in the future.

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This rotation and disconnect are understandable. Oklo’s inability to generate revenue today is costing its shareholders, but the long-term bull case is only strengthening. Oklo is a small modular reactor (SMR) company. SMRs are a new class of nuclear reactors that are smaller and easier to deploy than traditional nuclear power plants. Depending on demand, multiple smaller power plants can be deployed to mirror large conventional nuclear reactors, which can otherwise take a decade or more to build. Currently, no SMRs operate in the U.S. This unique positioning gives Oklo a huge advantage, which is further strengthened by two structural tailwinds.

Oklo’s Advantage No. 1: Securing Long-Term Margins Through Owner-Operator Model

Companies fulfilling the AI power demand today are able to do so comfortably because hyperscalers are paying a premium to get this power and avoid owning the power plant in the short term. By doing so, they are also keeping a chunk of the operating margin. Oklo, by taking a long-term approach and pursuing an own-and-operate model to sell electricity to customers, is playing a different game. Through ownership of the plants, it can keep most of the operating margin on its balance sheet. This model cannot easily be replicated as existing customers, the hyperscalers, would object to these companies shifting away from the short-term solutions they’re providing.