Nuclear reactor developer X-Energy, backed by Amazon among other firms, has filed for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq, as companies rush to capitalise on interest in artificial intelligence.

X-Energy said it plans to list its Class A common stock on the exchange under the ticker symbol “XE”, but did not indicate the number of shares it would offer or how much it hoped to raise from them.

The company is developing more than 11 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity in commercial partnerships in the US and the UK.

It plans to develop new reactors designed to run on a more enriched type of uranium known as HALEU, but has not yet received regulatory approval for the reactors.

X-Energy is one of several nuclear providers to have signed supply deals with utilities and major tech firms, amid a surge in the construction of energy-hungry AI data centres.

Last week the company said it would deploy its small nuclear reactors (SMRs)in Pennsylvania and other nearby markets with independent power supplier Talen Energy. It has contracts with Amazon, Centrica, Dow and others.

Amazon backed the company in 2024, anchoring a $400 million (£300m) funding round and taking two seats on X-Energy’s board.

In November, the start-up completed a $700m round led by Jane Street, ARK Invest and Galvanize.

In February, X-Energy was licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make nuclear fuel for advanced reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Nano Nuclear, NuScale Energy and Oklo, backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, are other SMR firms that are already publicly traded, amid a resurgence in the technology fuelled mainly by AI data centre growth.

While Nano and NuScale have fallen in value over the past year, Oklo’s stock price is up more than 100 percent.

Aerospace company SpaceX is planning a blockbuster IPO this year, as it promotes plans to build data centres in orbit.