The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that 278 research projects will receive funding under the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, and the standout winner is Project Prometheus — an effort to integrate artificial intelligence into nuclear reactor design. Prometheus secured a Phase II award of $60 million over three years, marking one of the largest federal investments in advanced nuclear technology in decades.
The project is led by Nvidia (NVDA) and Amazon Web Services (AMZN) alongside the Idaho National Laboratory, with Microsoft (MSFT) also joining as a partner. The research coalition includes four national laboratories — Idaho, Oak Ridge, Argonne and Sandia — as well as universities such as North Carolina State and Penn State. Officials clarified that this Prometheus project is separate from the “Prometheus AI supercluster” being built in Ohio by Meta Platforms (META) with Oklo and others, and is unrelated to Jeff Bezos’ AI startup Prometheus.
For investors, the spotlight fell on three recently listed nuclear companies. Small modular reactor developer X-Energy (XE) came in as a Tier 1 partner with a board seat, committing $10 million in capital and contributing its Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled reactor design and TRISO-X fuel data. The company expects the collaboration to accelerate licensing, manufacturing, construction and operation across its growing commercial project pipeline.
Fellow SMR startup Oklo (OKLO) also made the partner list. Oklo plans to integrate the Prometheus AI platform into its own multiphysics design and analysis infrastructure, supporting development of its Pluto reactor system designed for plutonium fuels. Oklo is already building its first Aurora Powerhouse at the Idaho National Laboratory through earlier DOE initiatives, and its strategy of accumulating regulatory experience via government projects before pursuing a commercial license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission appears to be gaining traction.
Nuclear fuel producer Standard Nuclear (STDN), which completed its initial public offering just last week, was named a partner as well. The company describes itself as the only U.S. firm with industrial-scale TRISO manufacturing facilities and has already secured approval to receive high-assay low-enriched uranium feedstock and produce TRISO fuel. Non-public companies TerraPower, Westinghouse Electric and Aalo Atomics are also involved. Notably absent again is SMR developer NuScale (SMR), which has not received comparable DOE support since 2019.
Despite the long-term positives of being chosen for a flagship federal program, the nuclear sector failed to shake off its slump on the day. X-Energy shares fell 3.22% to $15.92, Oklo dropped 1.12% to $44.00, and Standard Nuclear tumbled 9.02% to $8.78. Technology partners Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft also closed lower, down 1.56%, 4.5% and 2.13%, respectively.
X-Energy, which went public in April, now has a market capitalization of roughly $6.5 billion; Oklo stands at about $7.7 billion, while newcomer Standard Nuclear is valued at just $1.4 billion. The Tier 1 designation and deeper DOE ties may bolster X-Energy’s multiple pending reactor projects in the U.S. and the U.K., and for Standard Nuclear the partnership lends early credibility with government bodies. Still, with nuclear stocks broadly out of favor over the past year, analysts caution that project participation alone is unlikely to reverse the stocks’ fortunes anytime soon.
