- AI-for-Nuclear Research Partnership with Idaho National Laboratory, NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services (“AWS”)
- 3-Year Initiative Awarded $60 Million under U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission
- Targets Long-Term Industry Schedule Acceleration and Cost Reduction
WASHINGTON, D.C., – July 22, 2026 – X-Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: XE) (“X-energy” or “the Company”) was today announced as a founding member of the Prometheus project, a historic research initiative led by Idaho National Laboratory (“INL”), NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA), and AWS to accelerate advanced nuclear deployment through the use of artificial intelligence (“AI”). X-energy joins as a Tier 1 partner, committing financial support and the use of its proprietary Xe-100 small modular reactor and TRISO-X fuel designs to advance the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, and a new horizon for American innovation.
The Prometheus project aligns 32 of the United States’ leading laboratories, universities, and private technology developers to a national effort aimed at accelerating the application of AI for transformative scientific discovery. This three-year, first-of-a-kind initiative was today awarded $60 million under the DOE’s Genesis Mission, targeting long-term schedule acceleration and operational cost reduction for advanced nuclear technologies. The Company expects to directly leverage advancements to help accelerate commercial deployment across its 11 GW commercial pipeline.
X-energy joins the Prometheus project as a Tier 1 partner with board of directors representation, providing $10 million in private capital, and the use of its proprietary HTGR design and fuel fabrication data. X-energy’s Xe-100 and TRISO-X fuel will serve as a technical platform for a three-year research campaign, leveraging the Department’s test reactors and supercomputing capabilities to integrate frontier-class AI models into reactor design, licensing, manufacturing, construction, and semi-autonomous operation workflows, as well as fuel fabrication.
“We stand at the edge of one of humanity’s great technical evolutions, and its infrastructure build-out has already begun. We are proud to be part of the coalition driving it forward.” said J. Clay Sell, CEO of X-energy. “The future belongs to those willing to solve for what’s next, and that is exactly what we do at X-energy.”
Participation in the Prometheus project builds on the ongoing development of APEX, a proprietary multi-agentic platform currently deployed across X-energy’s engineering, licensing, and operations teams. Agentic workflows developed internally have helped to accelerate routine decision-making and technical analysis, positioning the Company to rapidly absorb, implement, and scale advancements arising from Genesis research.
X-energy is currently advancing more than 11 GW of new nuclear capacity across the United States and United Kingdom with commercial Xe-100 projects underway with Dow, Amazon, and Centrica. X-energy and Amazon have the option to deploy more than 5 GW of new nuclear by 2039 to support grid reliability and AWS data center needs. AI-enabled advancements pursued through the Prometheus project aim to accelerate licensing, manufacturing, construction, and operation across a growing commercial project portfolio, furthering the Company’s mission to provide clean, safe, reliable energy solutions to empower the unprecedented.
Frequently Asked Questions
While the exact scope of research remains confidential at this time, our near-term interest is in AI-assisted engineering, licensing, and manufacturing workflows. In practice, that means using AI to accelerate processes around design iteration, production of accurate, compliant licensing and quality documentation, manufacturing, and fuel fabrication, all under human oversight and subject to regulatory review by the NRC.
The tools Prometheus develops are intended to accelerate the design, licensing, and manufacturing work already underway across X-energy’s portfolio, including the Xe-100. Research through the Genesis Mission aims to establish the necessary technical foundation for the safe, responsible use of AI in nuclear energy, including the development of the underlying frameworks that would enable broader commercial implementation.
As part of X-energy’s role on the consortium’s Governance and Science Boards, the Company intends to work collaboratively with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to help demonstrate how AI can accelerate reactor licensing, improve safety analysis, and support human decision-making without compromising the rigorous oversight that defines the nuclear industry.
No. X-energy’s commercial fleet, including the Xe-100, is designed to be run by qualified operators under established, approved regulatory oversight. Higher levels of operational autonomy are a forward-looking research area aimed only at specialized settings such as remote installations, space applications such as fission surface power, or nuclear thermal propulsion where small crews, long distances, and limited communication make greater automation valuable. As regulatory frameworks and AI workflows mature, X-energy would work collaboratively with partners including the NRC to explore how AI can improve safety, security, and operational efficiency in future deployments.
Not presently. AI is not a substitute for the highly qualified operators who will run an Xe-100 plant, nor would it be tasked with any direct safety function. X-energy’s commercial reactors are intended to be operated solely by qualified NRC-licensed operators to keep critical safety decisions under human authority. To the extent AI is ever used in a commercial control-room setting, we believe its role should be strictly assistive, helping surface information and supporting operators’ situational awareness under a human-in-the-loop model.
About X-energy
X-energy is a leading designer of advanced small modular nuclear reactors (“SMR”) and fuel technology developed to establish a new standard in clean, safe, reliable energy. X-energy’s intrinsically safe Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled reactor and TRISO-X particle fuel expand applications for nuclear technology, with commercial projects across grid, industrial, and AI. Together, X-energy’s technology drives enhanced safety, lower cost, faster construction timelines, and scalable deployment when compared with other SMRs and conventional nuclear. For more information, visit X-energy.com or connect with us on X or LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our business, including statements related to AI development initiatives and capabilities, the potential for AI to make nuclear development, deployment and operations more efficient and our ability to use advancements from Genesis Mission across our pipeline. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual results due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with developing and deploying AI technologies, the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape, technological limitations, data quality and safety and cybersecurity risks. You should not rely on our forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. More information about potential risks and uncertainties that could affect our business and financial results is more fully detailed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is available on our Investor Relations website at https://investors.x-energy.com/ and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events.
Contact
Robert McEntyre, Corporate Communications
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+1 240.673.6565
Patricia Gil, Investor Relations
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