Connect with us

News

X-energy stock pops 27% on first day of trading following upsized IPO

info

Published

on

GettyImages 2272243688.jpeg

X-energy’s stock popped today in its debut on the Nasdaq, opening at $30.11 before closing at $29.20, up 27% over its initial public offering of $23 per share.

Investors can’t get enough nuclear power, apparently. Even the initial share price had been revised upward from the $16 to $19 target floated by the company during its investor roadshow. At close, the company was valued at $11.5 billion.

Just five years ago, such interest in a nuclear startup would have come as a surprise to many. 

Back then, the nuclear industry was haunted by delayed projects and massive cost overruns at recently completed reactors. Two power plants were completed in Georgia — one in the late 2010s and another in the early 2020s. In total, they cost around $30 billion to build.

Nuclear startups in the early 2020s were in their infancy, and at least one frontrunner had run into significant regulatory problems, sparking fears that the industry hadn’t been able to put its past behind it.

Now, investors appear optimistic that X-energy and its peers have figured out a way around the challenges.

Much of the momentum can be traced to the AI-driven data center boom. GPUs need tremendous amounts of electricity, and while solar, wind, batteries, and natural gas have been filling the need today, tech companies have been hoping to diversify. Nuclear power is one of the many options they’ve been exploring, hoping that the compact form factor will be an ideal fit for their sprawling data centers.

Nuclear power has long had more potential to power the U.S. grid than it has been able to deliver. Today, about 18% of electricity in the country comes from nuclear power. But reactor costs have risen in recent decades. Nuclear power might be one of the most reliable sources of electricity in the U.S., but it’s also one of the most expensive.

X-energy’s 80-megawatt reactor design is an order of magnitude smaller than many existing nuclear power plants. The company is betting that modularity can help bring costs down, and data center operators are hoping that a single campus can be powered by a fleet of reactors, providing the sort of redundancy and stability they prize. Amazon has said it will buy up to 5 gigawatts worth of capacity from X-energy over the next decade or so, but chemical maker Dow will receive the startup’s first power plant. 

Construction is underway at X-energy’s fuel facility, and while the company has yet to start construction of a power plant, investors appear bullish that the company will be able to break nuclear power free from its decades-long malaise. 

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

News

2027 election already concluded, North will give Tinubu 95% votes – Kaduna Gov, Uba Sani

info

Published

on

By

Uba sani 1.jpg

Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, has declared that the 2027 presidential election has already been concluded.

Sani assured that the North would give Tinubu at least 95 percent of the total vote in the 2027 presidential election.

He spoke during the flag off of 122km Kaduna-Birni Gwari road on Tuesday.

The governor noted that the people of Kaduna State are happy with Tinubu.

He said: “We have to be happy with what he has done for us and whether we like it or not, Kaduna is the capital of Northern Nigeria, everyone is proud of Kaduna.

“Kaduna’s development is a development for all the states of Northern Nigeria, so we are happy and grateful to the president for recognizing that Kaduna is the heart of Northern Nigeria.

“We will continue to support the president, I have no doubt in my mind that the 2027 election has been concluded, and we are given President Tinubu at least 95% of the total votes. There is no doubt about that and I stand to be challenged.

“The Western bypass is ongoing from the Abuja junction to the Kawu motorpark and that is also a construction undertaken by the Federal Ministry of Works under the able leadership of Tinubu.

“We are resuming the construction of Eastern bypass which is extremely very critical for our people, it will resume according to my conversation with the Minister in the next two weeks by the grace of God, so all these are things the president is doing for the people of Kaduna State.”

The governor maintained that Tinubu is doing what no past president has done in Northern Nigeria.

“About two weeks ago, I came out boldly and said no president in the history of Nigeria has done what Tinubu did for us here in Northern Nigeria and I challenge anyone to come up with anything contrary to what I have said.

“Tinubu has done a lot, only now my brother and friend, Masari stood here and mentioned most of the projects that Mr President is doing in Northern Nigerian; again, the Minister came up here and confirmed all those projects.

“Let me ask a question, why was it that other leaders were not doing what Tinubu is doing today for Northern Nigeria, was it that Northern Nigeria was not a priority or that was not their concern? We thank Tinubu for the love for the North and humanity,” he added.

Continue Reading

Health

Two deaths recorded as US battles Cyclosporiasis outbreak

info

Published

on

By

ChatGPT Image Aug 4 2026 02 47 23 PM.png

MTN ADVERT

Two people have died in the United States after contracting Cyclosporiasis, marking the first known deaths linked to the country’s largest recorded outbreak of the disease.

Cyclosporiasis is an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite that thrives in human waste.

The deaths were recorded in Michigan, the state hardest hit by the outbreak.

Reuters reported on Monday that the state health authorities said both patients had serious underlying medical conditions that may have been worsened by the infection and the severe dehydration associated with the illness.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it had confirmed 6,707 laboratory cases nationwide as of 28 July, alongside more than 11,500 suspected cases awaiting laboratory confirmation.

PT WHATSAPP CHANNEL

Michigan, the hardest-hit, has recorded 11,234 cases as of Monday, including 193 hospitalisations.

About Cyclosporiasis

Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal infection caused by the microscopic parasite known as Cyclospora cayetanensis.

According to the CDC, people become infected after eating food or drinking water contaminated with human faeces containing the parasite.

Although the disease is not usually life-threatening, it can cause severe illness in some people.

Symptoms include watery diarrhoea, nausea, stomach cramps, loss of appetite, fatigue, and dehydration.

The CDC notes that some infected people may not develop symptoms, while untreated infections can last for weeks or even months, with symptoms disappearing and returning over time.

Outbreak investigation

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has linked part of the outbreak to iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms’ operations in central Mexico and served at Taco Bell restaurants.

The affected lettuce has since been recalled.

However, investigators believe the contaminated lettuce does not explain all reported infections and are examining whether other food sources may also be responsible.

Epidemiologists suspect that more than one outbreak may be occurring simultaneously.

READ ALSO: Mendicants, Social Parasites, and Our Rights As Human Beings, By Ifeanyi Uddin

Public health experts told Reuters that recent staffing and funding cuts across US health agencies may have slowed efforts to investigate and contain the outbreak.

Paul Bollyky, an infectious disease expert at Stanford Medicine, was quoted to have said that “Cyclospora is harder to track than many foodborne pathogens because, unlike bacteria, it cannot be grown ⁠in the lab or easily genome-mapped to trace an outbreak.”

Mr Bollyky warned that reduced staffing in public health departments could make outbreaks more difficult to investigate and control.

He said the scale of the outbreak raises broader questions about the safety of the US food supply.

“Anytime you have over 10,000 people infected with a foodborne pathogen, you do have to wonder whether this is a canary in the coal mine.”


Discover more from Premium Times Nigeria

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Continue Reading

Trending