Oklo narrowed its loss in the first quarter and named a new chief technology officer.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company on Tuesday posted a loss of $9.8 million, or 7 cents a share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $24 million, or 34 cents a share, the year before.

Oklo had a higher cost related to change in fair value of simple agreements for future equity in the prior-year quarter.

The company named Pat Schweiger as its first chief technology officer. Schweiger previously worked at Hedron Engineering and Consulting leading thermal battery projects at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Oklo is working on developing a small modular reactor to create nuclear energy, but it has not completed an approved reactor and has yet to post a profit. It went public roughly a year ago, partly funded by OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman. Altman said in April he would step down as chairman of the company's board.

Earlier on Tuesday, it said it had finished drilling at a proposed location for its first nuclear plant, sending its stock up 11%.