Nuclear Developer Oklo Advances Dual Alliances Targeting Data Center and Industrial Power Needs

Advanced nuclear technology company Oklo entered into two separate high-profile collaborative agreements this week that seek to supply integrated energy solutions to data centers and large load industrial operations. The alliances—one with Liberty Energy, an energy services and technologies firm, and another with critical digital infrastructure provider Vertiv—mark the newest notch in the growing market for dispatchable, resilient, and efficient power and thermal management for hyperscale customers.

Liberty Energy Alliance: Bridging the Gap to Nuclear Baseload

On July 23, Oklo and Liberty said they would jointly pursue large, high-demand customers—including data centers, industrials, and utilities—through an integrated deployment strategy that will seek to address the immediate energy bottleneck facing growth-constrained generation facilities. The approach echoes a “hybrid-model” partnership Oklo launched in January with Texas-based prime and backup solutions company RPower, but it suggests a strategic evolution from Oklo’s RPower memorandum of understanding, which was limited to data center applications.

The alliance plans to leverage Liberty’s Forte natural gas power generation and load management platform. Liberty’s website suggests the solution may be a branded evolution of Liberty’s core digiPower technology, which utilizes compressed natural gas (CNG) in Rolls-Royce 20V4000 generator sets to achieve 43% thermal efficiency.

Liberty Energy, notably, was an early investor in Oklo, committing $10 million in 2023 after evaluating the advanced nuclear landscape and identifying Oklo’s “innovative business model, small and scalable design, and differentiated technology” as strategically positioned to serve large-scale energy users.

The companies on Wednesday suggested the approach seeks to address a prevalent grid mismatch concern: While data centers can be built in under 12 months, utility interconnection timelines stretch 3-6 years.

The turnkey deployment model will follow a three-stage progression designed to provide immediate, dispatchable power from Liberty’s natural gas generation while establishing a staged transition to baseload nuclear as Oklo’s Aurora powerhouses are commissioned.

“Liberty’s Forte natural gas power generation and load management solution will provide initial reliable primary power and flexible energy services, along with future grid management services focused on optimization and resiliency,” Oklo said. “As Oklo’s Aurora powerhouses come online, they will be integrated to provide clean, continuous baseload energy, complementing Liberty’s natural gas power.”

“Our strategic alliance with Oklo advances a power strategy aimed at accelerating deployment for sophisticated, large load customers. This innovative approach redefines how today’s most energy-intensive industries can scale efficiently with cost-effective, next-generation power solutions, combining rapid deployment, intelligent load management, and integrated grid management,” said Ron Gusek, Chief Executive Officer of Liberty. “We are excited to offer developers unmatched speed to market, price stability, and a future-ready energy platform.”

Vertiv Collaboration: Nuclear-Enabled Cooling for AI-Scale Compute

On July 22, Oklo said it entered into a collaboration agreement with Vertiv to co-develop and pilot integrated power and thermal management installations that address the escalating challenge of cooling 100kW+ racks, which are now common in AI and high-performance computing applications. The partnership targets hyperscale and colocation data centers experiencing what Vertiv describes as “unprecedented demand” from AI workloads that have fundamentally altered thermal management requirements.

The pilot demonstration will leverage the first Oklo Aurora powerhouse, integrating Oklo’s nuclear-generated electricity and process steam with advanced cooling systems developed by Vertiv. Specifically, it will target applications where steam and electricity from Oklo’s onsite power plants can drive integrated cooling through heat recovery.

Oklo’s first commercial Aurora powerhouse—a compact passive fast-spectrum reactor—is targeted for deployment at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) by late 2027. Introduced initially as a 1.5 MWe microreactor, the Aurora design has undergone significant scaling, first to 15 MWe, and most recently, as unveiled during the company’s fourth quarter 2024 earnings call in March, to 50 MWe and 75 MWe.

The company has noted that a 50 MW platform offers flexibility in power output,” delivering between 15 MW and 75 MW, a range that “matches data center architectures well,” it says. In its latest milestone on July 17, Oklo announced the successful completion of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) pre-application readiness assessment for Phase 1 of its combined license application (COLA) for the first commercial reactor at INL. The measure puts Oklo on schedule to submit its full combined license application later in 2025.

“This agreement is about delivering clean power, energy-efficient cooling, and infrastructure solutions purpose-built for AI factories, data centers, and high density compute,” said Jacob DeWitte, Co-Founder and CEO of Oklo. “We are developing a plant concept that leverages proven, off-the-shelf components without altering the core design of our plants. Vertiv is an expert in cooling and power innovation for data centers and critical infrastructure, so co-designing these solutions from the outset, we can create greater value and efficiency for data center and infrastructure operators.”

Vertiv, a critical digital infrastructure provider with deep domain expertise in high-density thermal management, provides a suite of advanced cooling technologies purpose-built for hyperscale and colocation applications. The company’s portfolio spans direct-to-chip liquid cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, immersion systems, and modular, prefabricated infrastructure capable of powering and cooling up to 100 kW per rack.

“Currently, data centers support rack power requirements in excess of 20 kilowatts (kW), but the market is headed to 50 kW or more,” the company explains on its website. “Newer-generation central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) have higher thermal density properties than previous-generation architectures. In addition, server manufacturers are packing more CPUs and GPUs into each rack to meet the accelerating demand for high-performance computing and AI applications.” That trajectory has exposed the limits of conventional air-based cooling. Liquid cooling, Vertiv says, can be up to 3,000 times more effective than air, and it is rapidly expanding beyond mainframes and gaming rigs into mainstream data center infrastructure.

“Our collaboration with Oklo is an extension of Vertiv’s commitment to energy-efficient infrastructure that supports modern data center demands,” said Vertiv CEO Gio Albertazzi. “As the demand for AI and high-performance computing continues to grow, nuclear energy is increasingly a discussion point for hyperscale, colocation, and other large data centers. Vertiv is committed to driving innovation with the higher cooling capacities and energy efficiencies required to support modern data centers.”