Will NuScale Power achieve growth success in the next five years?

What is NuScale?

To give you a quick summary, NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) is a nuclear energy company focused on designing and selling Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).

Think of them as "Lego-style" nuclear plants: instead of building massive, one-off reactors on-site, NuScale builds smaller units in a factory and ships them to the location.

Product offerings

• NuScale Power Module: Their main product offering - A 77 MW (megawatt) SMR that can be combined to create larger power plants. It's a pressurized water-cooled reactor
• E2 Center: A learning environment for training operators and engineers on how to manage these modular reactors.

To give you a scale of the power produced, a 12-module NuScale plant produces 924 MWe, enough to power roughly 60 large-scale data centers.

Suitable use cases

• AI and data centers - can be built close to large data centers to provide reliable, low-carbon power
• Heavy manufacturing industries like steel, glass and chemicals require intense heat, not just electricity. NuScale's reactors can produce high-pressure steam at temperatures of 500°C or higher

As of today, they are transitioning from an engineering and development phase to commercial deployment. Massive Cash Buffer: NuScale ended 2025 with $1.3 billion in liquidity. This was achieved through an aggressive $750 million share sale (ATM program) in late 2025. This gives them roughly 2–3 years of runway at current spending levels.

Competitors

• TerraPower: Backed by Bill Gates, they are developing a different type of advanced nuclear reactor called the Natrium reactor, which uses a sodium-cooled fast reactor design.
• X-energy: They are working on a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) design called the Xe-100, which is a 200 MW SMR.

Unlike NuScale's competitors, a huge upside is that they are the only ones that have received design certification from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). This gives them a significant advantage in terms of regulatory approval and market entry.

Red Flags

• ENTRA1 Controversy: Class action exists against NuScale for securities fraud following allegations that it misrepresented the experience of ENTRA1 as it's partner when it was a three-year-old entity with no prior history of building, financing, or operating nuclear power projects. It also entrusted its core technology commercialisation to ENTRA1, an inexperienced partner - likely exposing NuScale to material risks of failure and regulatory challenges.
• NuScale reportedly failed to disclose the scale of its milestone payment exposure to ENTRA1, which includes a $495m payment in Q3 2025 and potential future payments exceeding $3bn.
• Significant dilution due to capital raises/net issuance visible in cash from financing activities.

Revenue

As of FY2025, 100% of reported revenue (~$31.5M) is from the Utilities — Electric segment and all revenue is from the United States.

NuScale derives revenue primarily from its nuclear technology and services: design, licensing and regulatory support, and related services for its NuScale Power Module (i.e., contracts with utilities).

Future Outlook

Analysts expect the company to be unprofitable over the next few years. Consensus net income estimates have been revised lower in several future years.

Revenue outlook: analysts expect strong top‑line growth, near‑term estimates were trimmed modestly.

Price target: consensus price target ~$20.73 with wide dispersion (i.e low $8 vs high $52).

EPS revisions: small upward tweak for FY2026 EPS estimate, but later years’ EPS estimates were revised more negatively.

In summary, analysts are bullish on revenue growth potential but cautious on near‑term profitability; estimates have seen mixed downward revisions and disagreement among analysts.

Would I invest today?

It depends on your stomach for risk and for me, at my current life stage, I would be cautious but still monitor the company closely.

On one hand, NuScale is the only SMR company with a design that's actually been certified by the NRC, and they’re sitting on a $1.3 billion cash pile - which is huge for this sector. With Big Tech looking for 24/7 power for AI, the 'why' for their business has never been stronger.

However, they have some massive red flags. The ENTRA1 controversy and the resulting fraud lawsuits are serious - it raises questions about whether management can actually execute the commercial side as well as they did the engineering side. Plus, we won't see a reactor actually spinning until the early 2030s.

Personally, I see it as a high-upside 'moonshot' play. If they survive the lawsuits and break ground in strategic regions where it's needed, they’ll own the market. But until they move past the ENTRA1 headlines, it's a volatile ride.