Climate tech companies are going public. What’s next? | MIT Technology Review

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Skip to ContentMIT Technology ReviewFeaturedTopicsNewslettersEventsAudioMIT Technology ReviewFeaturedTopicsNewslettersEventsAudioClimate change and energyClimate tech companies are going public. What’s next?Fervo Energy, X-energy, and Solv Energy are all racing to supply more electricity for rising demand.
By Casey Crownhartarchive pageMay 28, 2026Fervo Energy went public in May 2026. The new funding could help support its first commercial plant in Utah (pictured here), as well as future construction.AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt This year, there’s been a wave of notable energy companies going public via IPO in the US. The solar and battery company Solv Energy went public in February, to the tune of $6 billion. X-energy, which is building small modular nuclear reactors, did the same in April, and its stocks surged on its first day of trading to hit a $11.5 billion market cap. Most recently, the geothermal company Fervo Energy went public in mid-May, and its market cap is now about $12.4 billion. Those are all success stories in the IPO world. And it certainly doesn’t feel like a coincidence that all these companies are racing to provide electricity in an era of rising demand (partly due to data centers). Let’s take a look at how these firms are doing, what this moment says about the grid, and what’s coming next.  Let’s start with Fervo Energy, a company we’ve covered a lot over the years that’s working to develop enhanced geothermal energy. (We included it on our 2025 list of Climate Tech Companies to Watch.) While conventional geothermal requires finding specific spots with hot rock, water, and fractures to support a power plant, Fervo essentially uses fracking techniques to create the necessary conditions.
The company was founded in 2017, and it raised about $1.5 billion from investors over the years before its IPO. Fervo’s first commercial project, Cape Station in Utah, is expected to have a capacity of about 500 megawatts. The first unit is set to start generating power for customers by October and the next two units by January 2027.
The new funding from the IPO could help the company scale. Fervo currently has over 600 megawatts’ worth of binding power purchase agreements. And it has leases for land that could together generate more than 40 gigawatts of electricity. (As of 2024, the entire US geothermal fleet had a capacity of just 4 gigawatts.) The company also has an eye on cutting construction and drilling costs—its Cape Station plant is expected to cost about $7 per kilowatt, which is cheaper than new nuclear power plants but over twice the expense of building a new natural-gas plant in the US.  X-energy also aims to provide reliable clean power: it’s part of the wave of next-generation nuclear companies working on small modular reactors. The company is building high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, which flow helium over self-contained pebbles of nuclear fuel. These reactors will each generate 80 megawatts of electricity, less than one-tenth the output of larger ones like Unit 4 at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, the most recent addition to the commercial nuclear fleet in the US.   X-energy also saw its IPO go well, and prices surged in trading after the initial offering. One interesting tidbit here—the company had previously planned to go public in 2023 but decided against it because of difficult market conditions. The company is still years away from demonstrating its technology in a commercial project.  You may recall a story I wrote last year about its effort to build nuclear reactors at the site of a Dow Chemical plant in Texas. The company recently received a key environmental approval for that project, though it’s still waiting for the final green light from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to start construction. Finally, Solv Energy builds solar and energy storage projects, mostly for utilities and independent power producers. Solar and batteries are some of the cheapest and easiest technologies to add to the grid, so this one could get a lot of capacity online, quickly. The company already has 21 gigawatts’ worth of projects operational across 35 states. Related Story2025 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Fervo Energy and its advanced geothermal power plantsRead nextMany companies in the energy sector are pinning their hopes on the rapid growth in data center construction and operation. The AI boom has transformed the energy landscape, pushing electricity demand higher in a country where it’s been relatively flat for the last decade or so. Solv Energy mentioned data centers over a dozen times in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission before its IPO. 

And Fervo and X-energy are particularly connected to the tech giants driving AI. Google has been a longtime investor in Fervo and also pioneered what it calls its clean transition tariff with the company. Amazon is a client of X-energy as well as an investor; it reportedly owns close to 20% of the company. Fervo and X-energy are also in industries that occupy a political sweet spot. President Trump and his administration have gone after wind power and other renewables, cutting off existing support and slowing approvals for new projects. Meanwhile, geothermal and particularly nuclear power have kept favor with the federal government and enjoyed continued tax credits and grant funding. If a few big leaders cash through these IPOs, it could help investors feel more confident about supporting the energy sector, even if that money is concentrated in later-stage ventures like these rather than earlier-stage companies.  We could see other firms, particularly in nuclear and geothermal, attempt a similar route in the year ahead. A key thing to watch here will be whether Fervo and X-energy in particular can succeed in scaling up and deploying their technology. If either of these companies stumbles or misses a timeline, it could have ripple effects for those hoping to follow in these very lucrative footsteps.  This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.  by Casey CrownhartShareShare story on linkedinShare story on facebookShare story on emailPopularWant to understand the current state of AI? Check out these charts.Michelle KimInside the stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clonesAntonio Regalado10 Things That Matter in AI Right NowAmy NordrumMusk v. Altman week 1: Elon Musk says he was duped, warns AI could kill us all, and admits that xAI distills OpenAI’s modelsMichelle KimDeep DiveClimate change and energyThe balcony solar boom is coming to the USPlug-in panels are getting popular—how do we make sure they’re safe?
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A recent wave of initial public offerings (IPOs) by climate technology companies in the US highlights the sector's trajectory amid rising energy demand, partly fueled by data centers and the artificial intelligence boom. Companies such as Fervo Energy, X-energy, and Solv Energy are actively seeking capital to supply increased electricity needs through innovative energy solutions.

Fervo Energy focuses on developing enhanced geothermal energy by utilizing fracking techniques to create the necessary subsurface conditions for power generation. The company's first commercial project, Cape Station in Utah, is planned to have a capacity of approximately 500 megawatts, with subsequent units scheduled for development. The capital raised through its IPO is intended to support the scaling of operations, as the company already manages over 600 megawatts of binding power purchase agreements and possesses land leases capable of generating over 40 gigawatts of electricity. Fervo is also focused on reducing costs, aiming for a plant cost of about seven dollars per kilowatt, which is more cost-effective than new natural-gas plants but significantly higher than building a new nuclear facility.

X-energy is engaged in the development of next-generation nuclear technology, specifically small modular reactors (SMRs), utilizing high-temperature gas-cooled reactors that use helium to flow over nuclear fuel pebbles. These reactors are designed to produce 80 megawatts of electricity each, which is substantially less than the output of larger commercial nuclear units. The company is pursuing this goal while navigating regulatory processes, having recently secured an environmental approval for a proposed project at the site of a former Dow Chemical plant in Texas, although final approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is pending.

Solv Energy concentrates on solar and energy storage projects, leveraging technologies that are relatively inexpensive and easy to integrate into the existing grid infrastructure, allowing for rapid capacity deployment. The company has already operationalized twenty-one gigawatts of projects across thirty-five states.

These energy ventures are intricately linked to the technology giants driving the AI revolution. Fervo Energy has received support from Google, which has also pioneered clean transition tariffs with the company, and X-energy has relationships with Amazon, which acts as both a client and investor. Furthermore, the regulatory environment offers a political advantage for geothermal and nuclear energy, as these sources have maintained favorable support and tax credits from the federal government, contrasting with the diminished support for other renewable sources like wind power. This political context suggests that public investment in these areas may increase investor confidence, even for later-stage ventures in climate tech.

The future success of these companies hinges on their ability to successfully scale up and deploy their respective technologies. The ultimate outcome will depend on whether Fervo and X-energy can manage their technological deployment timelines without encountering significant setbacks, which could have downstream effects for other firms aspiring to enter these lucrative energy markets.