April 24 (Reuters) – X-Energy shares surged 30.9% in their Nasdaq debut on Friday, giving the company a valuation of $11.9 billion and signaling strong interest in the developers of carbon-free energy that has the potential to fuel the unprecedented boom in artificial intelligence.
The Rockville, Maryland-based company raised $1.02 billion in its initial public offering on Thursday, after it sold 44.3 million shares in its upsized offering at $23 per share. The stock opened at $30.11.
The listing marks a critical capital milestone for X-Energy as it races to deploy its “Xe-100” small modular reactors (SMRs), which are viewed by industry analysts as a vital solution for the first commercial SMR electrons to hit the U.S. grid by the end of the decade.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas and Atharva Singh in Bengaluru and David French in New York; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
