NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) finished 2025 at $14.17 a share. As of this writing, it trades near $5, down about 64% this year. That puts 2026 on track to be the stock’s worst year since 2023, when it dropped 68%.
What followed makes 2023 worth a closer look. The small modular reactor developer’s shares climbed 445% in 2024, ending the year at $17.93.
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Sure, one rebound is a single case, not a pattern. But what changed between the two years makes a helpful case study for what NuScale needs now. And I think the two setups aren’t as alike as the stock price suggests.
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Short on cash and customers
In 2023, NuScale’s problem was survival. In November of that year, NuScale and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems agreed to cancel the Carbon Free Power Project, a plant NuScale had worked on for around 10 years. The partners said the project looked unlikely to sign up enough utilities to keep going. Shares dropped around 33% the next trading day.
The balance sheet made that blow tougher to brush off. NuScale finished 2023 with $125.4 million in cash and equivalents ($5.1 million of it restricted). Its operations had gone through around $183 million in the year.
In other words, the company was holding less than a year of its 2023 spending.
The rebound paid for itself
The turn in 2024 began with cuts. In January, NuScale eliminated 154 full-time jobs, about 28% of its staff, aiming to achieve $50 million to $60 million in annual savings.
Showing how much the cuts mattered, NuScale’s 2024 operating loss was $138.7 million, around half of 2023’s $275.6 million. Cash used by operations dropped to around $109 million from about $183 million. Even more, revenue grew 62% to $37.0 million, thanks to engineering and licensing work on a planned six-module NuScale plant in Romania. And by early 2025, management said it was in advanced talks with potential data center and artificial intelligence customers.
Next, the stock’s rally refilled the bank account. NuScale’s warrants let holders buy shares at $11.50, and after the stock rose well above that price, around 97% were exercised, generating about $205 million in 2024. NuScale also raised about $205 million that year by selling new shares.
NuScale’s cash and short-term investments grew from $161.7 million at the end of September 2024 to $446.7 million at year-end — around four years of its 2024 cash spending. In short, NuScale had fixed both its cost and cash problems.
