Nuclear startup X-energy begins its IPO roadshow targeting a $16 to $19 per share price range and up to $814M in proceeds

X-energy, a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor startup backed by Amazon, began its IPO roadshow Wednesday with a target price range of $16 to $19 per share that could net up to $814M, after abandoning a SPAC merger attempt in 2023. Amazon led a $500M Series C-1 round and has pledged to buy as much as five gigawatts of nuclear power from X-energy by 2039, and the company has raised roughly $1.8B from investors in total. No small modular reactor startup has built a power plant yet, and X-energy's own path to profitability faces the challenge that mass manufacturing cost benefits typically take around a decade to materialize.