(Bloomberg) -- A developer of advanced nuclear systems backed by Sam Altman won investor approval to go public via a blank-check deal, sounding a rare positive note for the moribund SPAC market.

Oklo Inc., which counts the OpenAI Inc. chief executive officer as its chairman, is expected to close the deal on Thursday and debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday under the symbol OKLO, according to a statement. The combination with AltC Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company backed by Altman and veteran dealmaker Michael Klein, valued Oklo at $850 million when the agreement was unveiled in July.

Shares of AltC closed at $14.34 each on Tuesday, down 4.1% from the previous close but a 38% premium to the roughly $10.41 investors could’ve opted to redeem shares for when approving the merger. The deal delivered over $306 million to the company in proceeds, the statement showed.

The stock had increased more than 40% this year prior to Tuesday’s vote as it captured the attention of retail traders. A flurry of announcements paired with Oklo executives promoting the company at conferences helped spark a rally last month.

Read More: Altman-Backed SPAC That’s Targeting Nuclear Firm Has Surged 22%

The company last month signed a non-binding letter of intent with Diamondback Energy Inc., the largest independent producer headquartered in Texas’s Permian Basin, to collaborate on a 20-year power purchase agreement. Oklo is developing next-generation fission reactors to produce clean energy at a global scale, according to its website. 

The company expects to deploy its first commercial advanced reactor in the US before the end of the decade, the website shows.

Nuclear fusion startups have been backed by major players including Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Palantir Technologies Inc. co-founder Peter Thiel. Altman invested in Oklo in 2015 and became chairman, believing it is “the best positioned player to pursue commercialization of advanced fission energy solutions,” according to a July press release.

Along with Oklo, one other blank check was slated to seek the backing of its shareholders on Tuesday. Screaming Eagle Acquisition Corp. — the SPAC chaired by former Hollywood executive Harry Sloan — had a shareholder vote scheduled for Tuesday morning to approve his deal to take Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.’s studio business public in a merger that values it at $4.6 billion including debt. The pair would join the more than 35 SPAC mergers to close on US exchanges this year.

Blank-Check Return

The pending completion of the Oklo merger would mark the fifth successful de-SPAC for Klein, who had to shutter a pair of blank check firms last year after failing to complete a deal. The veteran investment banker returned to the blank-check arena last week for the first time in nearly three years with Churchill Capital Corp. IX, which has raised $287.5 million.

For Sloan’s Screaming Eagle, the deal to bring public a content provider with a deep portfolio of franchise properties including The Hunger Games, John Wick and The Twilight Saga would be the eighth SPAC merger to close backed by his Eagle Equity Partners, SPAC Research data show. 

SPACs have mostly fallen out of favor after a boom in 2020 and 2021 turned into a bust, with dozens of companies filing for bankruptcy as others were acquired at fire-sale prices. More than one-fifth of the nearly 500 SPAC deals that have closed since 2019 are trading below $1 each, a greater than 90% plunge.

However, there’s been a modest revival in the past three months as some serial sponsors return. Over the past year, blank checks backed by Klein, Nabors Industries Ltd., Mistral Capital Management LLC, and serial SPAC sponsor Eric Rosenfeld have raised millions as they eye striking deals to take private firms public.

(Updates with details from statement in first three paragraphs.)

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