US AI factory company Crusoe and nuclear start-up Aalo Atomics have entered a strategic partnership focused on developing and deploying the first nuclear-powered AI Factory data centre designed to validate nuclear power’s effectiveness with AI workloads. The deal follows Aalo’s Aalo-X test reactor achieving nuclear criticality on 4 July 2026 under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Reactor Pilot Program.
In 2027 Aalo plans to initially power a Crusoe Spark modular data centre, running Crusoe Cloud, at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) as a proof of concept. Crusoe Spark is a turnkey, prefabricated modular AI data centre unit designed to function as a self-contained “AI factory”. It is a highly portable, outdoor-rated chassis slightly larger than a standard physical shipping container: Each individual container draws roughly 1 MWe of power.
The Aalo-X is an experimental, extra-modular reactor (XMR) that uses sodium as a coolant and is fuelled by low-enriched uranium dioxide. The test reactor is the precursor to the Aalo Pod, a 50 MWe XMR power plant purpose-built for data centres. Each fully modular Aalo Pod will contain five factory-built, sodium-cooled, Aalo-1 reactors, using low-enriched uranium dioxide fuel. Looking forward, Aalo and Crusoe intend to deploy Aalo Pods and Aalo’s 50 MWe XMR power plants at Crusoe data centres, by the end of 2029.
“The next generation of AI infrastructure demands power that is reliable, abundant, clean and at scale, and Aalo’s nuclear reactors are built to meet that need,” said Cully Cavness, Co-Founder, President and Chief Strategy Officer at Crusoe. “One of Crusoe’s core values is to ‘bend the arc of energy toward sustainability,’ and within that value we embrace the principle of using Crusoe’s market position to support and accelerate energy innovation. In line with our core values, we look forward to Aalo and Crusoe jointly demonstrating to the industry the first AI data centre powered by a small modular nuclear reactor.”
Matt Loszak, Aalo Atomics CEO, noted: “As one of only four companies to reach criticality by President Trump’s deadline for companies in the DOE Reactor Pilot Program, we are now well positioned for not only the full power operation of our 10 MWe Aalo-X reactor, but also the deployment of the Aalo Pod to power commercial data centres. We are now the only nuclear technology company to design and build a nuclear reactor fuelled to produce 10MW of electricity– an achievement that positions Aalo as the premier power provider for the modern data centre.”
Aalo has already begun work on its second nuclear reactor (located next to the Aalo-X test reactor at INL), testing a commercial-scale system that will produce electricity and power for an on-site Crusoe Spark modular data centre.
