NuScale Power trades on the NYSE under ticker SMR. The company builds small modular reactors, known as SMRs, for commercial deployment. Its stock recently jumped over 13% on South Korean expansion news. Yet shares still sit roughly 75% below their all-time highs. NuScale targets a $10 trillion global infrastructure market. The pitch sounds deceptively simple. Artificial intelligence is devouring electricity, and the grid cannot keep up.
The macro backdrop strongly favors advanced nuclear. US electricity demand stayed flat from 2000 to 2020. Now AI data centers need constant, carbon-free baseload power. NuScale places reactors directly beside hyperscale facilities, bypassing congested grids entirely. Its designs promise a 95% capacity factor. The company has also woven an impressive geopolitical web. South Korea, Romania, and the Tennessee Valley Authority all feature in its deployment plans. Its regulatory moat looks formidable too. NuScale remains the only SMR developer holding NRC standard design approvals. It recently added former NRC chairman Dale Klein to its board.
The financials tell a harsher story. NuScale posted a $355 million net loss in 2025. Full-year revenue reached just $31.5 million. First-quarter 2026 revenue collapsed to only $565,000. The company has never commercialized a single reactor. It also dilutes shareholders aggressively, with shares outstanding doubling in twelve months. Crucially, NuScale holds no firm, binding customer orders today. Memorandums of understanding do not pay the bills. The optimistic $120 price target assumes flawless execution for a decade. Reaching it would require roughly 30 operating modules and a 54-fold revenue jump.
So the central question stays unresolved. NuScale offers a real technological edge and a powerful demand story. It also burns cash while its history haunts it. The earlier Carbon Free Power Project ballooned from $3 billion to over $9 billion before cancellation. The next signed Power Purchase Agreement could shift the stock from sentiment to fundamentals. Until then, investors are betting on promise, not proof.