NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) has shed roughly five-sixths of its value in approximately ten months, turning a $10,000 investment made at the stock’s 52-week high into about $1,650 today.
Shares hit a 52-week peak of $57.42 last October but have since cratered to near $9.50, a collapse that has wiped out billions in market value for investors who bought at the top.
The decline has not followed a straight path, with shares beginning 2026 above $16, briefly rallying past $20, before sliding by more than half from that recovered position.
NuScale remains the only small modular reactor developer to hold a certified SMR design from U.S. regulators, a distinction that has not been enough to arrest the stock’s freefall.
What has changed, fundamentally, is the commercial environment surrounding that certified design, with revenue effectively grinding to a halt in the most recent quarter.
The second quarter produced just $75,000 in revenue, compared to $8.1 million in the same quarter a year earlier, when engineering fees from the company’s Romanian project were still flowing.
That Romanian project work wrapped up in late 2025, and no new contract has been signed to replace it, leaving NuScale operating with virtually no revenue-generating activity.
The company’s share count has ballooned simultaneously, rising from a weighted average of roughly 133 million Class A shares a year ago to approximately 365 million shares this past quarter.
On August 11, NuScale filed to sell up to $750 million in additional stock over time, continuing the equity-issuance strategy that has funded its $1.9 billion in cash and investments.
That substantial cash reserve removes any immediate funding concern, but the orders needed to justify October’s elevated share price remain unsigned and pending.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is still in discussions with NuScale’s commercialization partner toward a power purchase agreement, which the company says could become the largest nuclear deployment program in U.S. history.
Those talks have not produced a contract, and Romania’s six-module RoPower project continues to work through conditions tied to a shareholder vote, leaving both major opportunities unresolved.
NuScale has notched real milestones along the way, including an updated design approval from regulators in May 2025 and the assembly of a supply chain the company counts at more than 60 partners.
Even after the 83% share price decline, NuScale’s market capitalization sits near $4.1 billion against trailing revenue of approximately $10.7 million, a valuation that still demands significant faith in future contracts.
The investment case now rests entirely on the assumption that a meaningful commercial agreement eventually materialises, and until one does, that assumption carries the full weight of the stock’s remaining value.
