Oklo (NYSE: OKLO) and AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) each reported quarterly results that revealed just how different early-stage infrastructure bets can look in practice.
Oklo posted its first-ever quarterly revenue of $1.21 million, while AST SpaceMobile recorded $31.52 million alongside a nine-figure launch-related loss.
Both companies are building the infrastructure the AI era increasingly demands, but the pace of progress and the nature of the risks are worlds apart.
Oklo’s quarter was defined by an operational milestone rather than the income statement, with the Groves reactor achieving first criticality in under a year.
Retail investor sentiment around the Groves milestone ran bullish, with discussion spreading across r/stocks, r/stockmarket, and r/investing at a sentiment score of 72.
The revenue beat against a $0.12 million consensus mattered less than the proof that the Aurora program is moving from paper to actual power generation.
An EPS miss of -$0.28 against a -$0.16 estimate did dampen some of that enthusiasm, keeping a lid on the celebratory tone surrounding the criticality news.
CEO Jacob DeWitte framed the moment directly: “The world is catching up to what we’ve known all along: nuclear power is essential to a clean, dependable, and scalable energy future.”
Oklo’s Aurora powerhouse design expanded from 50 MW to 75 MW to court hyperscalers, anchored by a 12 GW master power agreement with Switch and a roughly 14 GW contracted pipeline.
AST SpaceMobile’s quarter looked considerably heavier, with revenue missing estimates by 8.36% and a GAAP loss of -$0.77 versus a -$0.29 consensus, a 168.01% shortfall driven by a $125.9 million loss on involuntary conversion tied to the BB7 launch incident.
CEO Abel Avellan told investors, “our space-based cellular broadband network has now grown to 13 spacecraft in orbit, each the largest ever in low Earth orbit,” with BlueBirds 14, 15, and 16 ready to ship.
AST SpaceMobile ended the period with $2.29 billion in cash and a $1.30 billion contracted backlog, giving it a substantially clearer financial bridge to commercialization than its current losses might suggest.
The company’s 60-plus mobile network operator partners cover more than 3 billion mobile subscribers, with 3,000 digital cells activated across the Continental United States from seven gateways.
Government work also represents a meaningful revenue layer, with aggregate awards exceeding $125 million for national security applications, adding diversification beyond the consumer broadband story.
The Block 2 satellite roadmap targets peak data rates approaching 200 Mbps, which would position the network as a genuine competitor to terrestrial broadband in underserved markets.
For Oklo, the key test will be whether the NRC’s combined license application stays on schedule and whether the late 2027 to early 2028 first-power target holds, with the stock already down 38% year to date.
For AST SpaceMobile, the beta service launch and the pace toward 45 satellites in orbit by early 2027 will determine whether the $150 million to $200 million full-year revenue guide proves to be a floor or a ceiling.
The BB7 charge, while large, carries the hallmarks of a one-time event rather than a structural flaw in the business thesis, making the quarter’s losses less alarming in context.
Oklo offers a longer-dated option play on nuclear’s resurgence, but zero commercial revenue and a 2027 first-power target require a significant degree of patience and risk tolerance from investors.
Defensive investors may find neither company suitable at this stage, but those willing to underwrite hardware risk across a multi-year horizon could reasonably hold positions in both, with different conviction levels applied to each.
