Key Points
NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) went public in 2022. Shares of the nuclear energy stock struggled out of the gate. From August 2022 through the end of 2023, NuScale’s share price collapsed by more than 80%.
Then, something incredible happened: NuScale shares went on an incredible bull run. From the start of 2024 to the summer of 2025, NuScale stock soared by more than 1,800%!
What caused NuScale’s resurgence? One catalyst: the rise of AI.
The artificial intelligence industry needs more energy to power its energy-intensive data centers. And NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR) technology could be the solution.
After its astronomical rise, however, investor enthusiasm began to wane. Since last summer, NuScale’s stock price has once again slumped by more than 80%.
Is this another clear buying opportunity? To determine that, we must understand what the next few years will look like for the company.
What will happen to NuScale Power now?
NuScale’s SMR technology is the real deal. The company was the first to receive approval from the Nuclear Energy Commission for its SMR designs in 2020. In 2025, regulators approved another upscaled design, prompting the company to announce itself as “the most near-term American SMR power solution.”
SMRs are gaining real steam as a potential energy solution for the AI industry’s rapidly rising energy needs. Bank of America analysts predict that nuclear energy will be a $10 trillion opportunity over the next couple of decades, with SMRs playing a key role.
“[N]ew advancements in technology may now make the tipping point in sight for small modular reactors (SMRs) to reshape nuclear energy supply chains over the next decade,” the bank concludes.
NuScale has several projects in its pipeline. But these projects have suffered several delays, and even outright cancellations. The company’s SMR development in Romania, for example, has seen its completion date pushed back from 2030 to 2034.
Repeated struggles with advancing its project pipeline make NuScale a difficult business to forecast over the next few years. It is this uncertainty that is likely plaguing the current stock price. Keep in mind that only a handful of SMR facilities currently operate worldwide. So what NuScale is attempting to do — that is, scale production of a relatively novel energy source — is far from guaranteed despite rosy predictions for the SMR industry overall.
I’ll be mostly watching NuScale’s project with the Tennessee Valley Authority: a 6GW SMR project located in the eastern United States. I don’t expect that project to be built in the next three years, but we could receive news of a power purchasing agreement as early as this December, committing the utility to buying power from NuScale’s facility for decades to come.
In short, don’t expect NuScale to have any operational facilities by the end of this decade. The stock price, therefore, will swing based on investor confidence in its project pipeline. Swings in the market’s assessment of NuScale’s risk profile, therefore, should result in heavy volatility for the stock — both up and down.
Should you buy stock in NuScale Power right now?
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Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Ryan Vanzo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends NuScale Power. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
