Oklo sends Meta's prepayments to Centrus for fuel due in 2029, with no binding Meta power contract

Oklo▼−4.23% — Oklo, down 4.23 percent today turned Meta's▼−0.87% — Meta, down 0.87 percent today money into a fuel contract on November 12, and the money did not stay with Oklo ¹². The advanced-nuclear developer signed definitive, multi-year contracts with Centrus Energy▼−6.67% — Centrus Energy, down 6.67 percent today for high-assay low-enriched uranium, the fuel its Aurora fast reactors need, with prepayments from Oklo funding new enrichment capacity at Centrus' Pike County, Ohio plant and first deliveries only in 2029 ¹². Read this as supply-chain progress, not demand: nothing in the filings↗ says a binding power contract with Meta now exists, and that is the link that still decides whether Oklo gets built.

Meta's prepayment stops at the enrichment plant

Trace the cash. Meta agreed in January to prepay for electricity from Oklo's planned 1.2 GW Ohio campus, with the payment tied to project progress ⁵. That cash sits in Oklo, which held $3.13 billion of cash and securities at the end of September, a balance that grew only because Oklo sold $2.3 billion of stock in nine months ³. Now part of it moves out again, as prepayments to a centrifuge plant, for fuel Oklo cannot burn before 2029 ¹. The volume covers up to five Auroras; the disclosed scope is fuel, not customers ¹.

Centrus books the demand, Oklo carries the risk

Centrus is the clearer beneficiary. It now counts $5.4 billion of customer contracts and commitments against the new capacity, and Oklo's prepayments help fund a buildout whose risk now sits partly on Oklo's balance sheet ¹². For a supplier, prepaid demand is the best kind.

The plant cost and the prepayment amount are still undisclosed

How much Oklo prepaid is not in the release↗. Neither is the cost of a single Aurora plant, which Oklo has never given, with the fiscal-year report expected in March the next chance to get one ³⁴. Analysts model about $6.3 billion of free-cash burn from 2026 through 2030, roughly twice the cash on hand, and at $5.1 billion of market value investors are paying about $2 billion above net cash for a company with 2028 consensus revenue of $39 million ³⁴. Craig-Hallum halved its target to $27↗ on November 9 for exactly this reason ³. The stock fell on the news ¹.

The judgment: fuel in 2029 is a real, necessary hop, and the builders funding enrichment capacity today deserve the work. But until a binding Meta contract or an Idaho plant cost appears, every announcement moves cash out of a pile that already covers only half the projected burn.