Sam Altman resigns as Oklo chair position in wake of OpenAI nuclear energy talks

Sam Altman resigns as Oklo chair position

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has resigned from the chair of nuclear start-up Oklo, in an attempt to prevent a conflict of interest before expected negotiations between the two firms on a clean energy supply deal. The change, which is effective immediately, follows as OpenAI ramps up its quest for long-term, high-capacity, low-carbon forms of energy to power the next set of artificial intelligence models, the Financial Times reported.

Altman, who became an early Oklo investor and took over as the company's chairman in 2015, will be succeeded by the CEO and co-founder Jacob DeWitte.

"Considering Oklo's efforts to enter into strategic collaborations to develop clean energy on a large scale, especially in order to enable deploying AI, now is the opportune time for me to move on," Altman explained on Friday in a statement.

AI energy demands kindle renewed nuclear interest

OpenAI’s power needs are projected to soar as it continues building large-scale models. The company is working on Stargate, a $500bn project in partnership with SoftBank aimed at developing next-generation data centres across the US. Altman has long argued that developing reliable and scalable energy infrastructure is essential to meeting the growing demands of AI development.

Though nuclear power—specifically through the use of small modular reactors (SMRs)—is years from becoming a mainstream source of power for AI data centers, the technology is gaining increasing attention from the large tech companies looking to get access to clean, reliable power.

SMRs are next-generation nuclear plants that can generate as much as 300 megawatts of electricity—roughly a third the power of conventional nuclear reactors—and are more scalable and potentially quicker to deploy. They are being touted as a leading solution for energy-hungry sectors like cloud computing and AI.

Oklo still awaits regulatory approval

Although momentum continues to build, Oklo is yet to have U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission design approval, and has signed no binding commercial deals. That said, it has executed nonbinding memorandums of understanding with several groups, such as a 12GW deal with data centre host Switch.

Marc Bianchi, an energy analyst at TD Cowen, stated that Oklo will require a signed power purchase agreement (PPA) to secure project financing. "They can arrange financing if they have a PPA, which assists in financing the investment," he added.

Oklo is among a number of SMR developers that have raised considerable capital over the past few months. Since the early part of 2024, sector companies like X-energy and Newcleo have raised over $1.5bn in funding, with support from heavyweights like Amazon, Microsoft, Rolls-Royce, and Holtec International.

Altman's wider energy bets in the spotlight

Altman's resignation from the board at Oklo is the latest move to respond to escalating scrutiny of his conflicting financial interests, which have attracted attention following his brief removal from OpenAI in 2023. The company reinstated him soon after and committed to implementing more robust conflict-of-interest policies.

In addition to Oklo, Altman has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into Helion, a nuclear fusion company, further underscoring his long-term commitment to energy innovation as a strategic pillar of OpenAI’s ambitions.

The launch of DeepSeek—a large language model developed in China with significantly lower energy requirements—has added pressure on western AI companies to quickly identify alternative energy solutions that are both sustainable and geopolitically secure.

Oklo's shares fall despite sector momentum

Investor interest in Oklo has fallen sharply since its listing. The share price of the company has dropped by 61 percent from its high of $55.49 in February 2025, amid fears about regulatory challenges and the indefinite timeline for commercialisation.

Nevertheless, Oklo is still a central point in the new intersection of AI and energy infrastructure, with its executives wagering that interest from data-thirsty AI firms like OpenAI will ultimately translate into long-term energy contracts.

For Altman, resigning now could set the stage for one of those deals to happen—while letting OpenAI continue its clean energy plan without the spectre of governance risk.