InvestmentsGE Vernova booked $0.6 billion in net income in the second quarter of 2026. NuScale Power booked $75,000 in revenue. Both are in this race, and that gap is most of the story. ⚡ No publicly traded company earns a profit from an operating SMR today, because no Western SMR operates. The real contest is which of the five below first sells power or heat above its cost, and which one has the cash to last until then. 💰 All figures come from second-quarter 2026 filings and earnings releases unless noted.
What profitable means when nothing runs yet
A reactor company earns a profit when three things line up. Each one is a gate, and each company below sits at a different one. 🔍
License: an NRC construction permit in hand, then an operating license
Fuel: HALEU or standard low-enriched uranium under contract
Price: a customer paying enough for power or heat to cover the capital bill
The price gate is the hard one. Lazard’s 2026 report, summarized by Utility Dive, puts new-build nuclear at $175 to $255 per MWh unsubsidized, against $40 to $98 for utility-scale solar. ⚖️ That is nuclear in general, not an SMR-specific number, but no SMR developer has published a price that closes the gap. So the first profitable SMR probably sells to a buyer that values firm power: a data center, a chemical plant, a utility with a coal retirement. Which matters more to a shareholder in this sector, a signed customer or a cash cushion? Readers are welcome to argue it out in the replies. 📊
The five contenders
1. GE Vernova (NYSE: GEV): the only profitable one
GE Vernova’s second-quarter release reports $11.1 billion in revenue, $0.6 billion in net income, a $176 billion backlog and $13.1 billion in cash. Those numbers come from Power and Electrification, not reactors. 🏭 The SMR is a side bet inside a very large business.
Reactor: BWRX-300, a 300 MWe boiling water reactor built with Hitachi
Canada: OPG holds a CNSC construction licence for the first of four units at Darlington, a C$20.9 billion program, and applied for an operating licence on March 25, 2026
United States: NRC staff recommended a construction permit for TVA’s Clinch River unit in June, and Blue Energy filed the first part of its Texas application on September 16
GE Vernova wins on staying power. A slow SMR year costs it little.
2. NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR): certified, but customer-less
NuScale is the only company with an NRC-approved SMR design, the 77 MWe VOYGR module, in plants of up to 12 modules. ⚛️ Its second-quarter results show revenue of $75,000, a net loss of $47.5 million and $1.9 billion in liquidity.
Cash burn: $372.9 million used in operations in the first half, including a $259.9 million payment to ENTRA1, per the 10-Q
TVA: ENTRA1 is still negotiating a power purchase agreement for up to 6 GW, and the collaboration agreement is nonbinding
Romania: six modules at Doicesti, pending conditions attached to the Nuclearelectrica shareholder vote
Design approval is a license, not a customer. NuScale has the first and is still hunting the second. 📉
3. X-energy (Nasdaq: XE): revenue with a federal sponsor
X-energy went public on April 24, 2026 and raised about $1.1 billion net. Its second-quarter release shows $54.6 million in revenue and grant income, up 154%, a $110.0 million operating loss and $1,899.8 million in liquidity with no debt. 🚀 Most of that revenue is DOE-funded design work on the Xe-100, not power sales.
Reactor: Xe-100, an 80 MWe high-temperature gas-cooled unit (SMRbrief’s breakdown of the five SMR reactor types covers how it differs from water designs)
Project: four modules, 320 MWe, for Dow at Seadrift, Texas, under a 50/50 ARDP cost share
Timeline: the 10-Q expects the NRC construction permit in the first quarter of 2027 and first commercial delivery in the early 2030s
4. Oklo (NYSE: OKLO): the biggest cash pile and a 2028 date
Oklo ends the quarter with $3.0 billion in cash and marketable securities, including $1.9 billion raised through at-the-market programs in 2026. Its year-to-date net loss is $81.6 million, softened by $44.5 million of interest income. 🔋 Second-quarter revenue is about $1.2 million, all from services.
Reactor: Aurora, a liquid-metal fast reactor in the 15 to 100 MWe class
Aurora-INL: DOE approved the preliminary documented safety analysis, and startup remains targeted for 2028
Spending: 2026 operating cash use guidance rises to $120 million to $150 million, with capex of $400 million to $500 million
Other assets: the Groves isotope reactor in Texas reached first criticality in early August, and a 1.2 GW Ohio campus for Meta is in development
The first Oklo revenue from a reactor-made product is likely to be isotopes in early 2027, not electricity in 2028.
5. NANO Nuclear Energy (Nasdaq: NNE): smallest reactor, longest road
NANO’s KRONOS MMR is a 15 MWe (45 MWt) high-temperature gas-cooled microreactor with molten salt storage. The NRC accepted the University of Illinois construction permit application on May 18, 2026, and the company expects the review to finish in 2027. 🎓
Cash: $568.7 million as of March 31, 2026, plus an effective $900 million shelf that includes a $400 million ATM program (that is the latest figure found, so it may be stale)
Customers: MOUs with Supermicro and others, but no binding power contract in the sources reviewed
First unit: a research reactor, which is not a profit engine
Who gets there first
The order depends on which profit is meant. GE Vernova probably gets there first, but as a vendor. It sells reactors to OPG and TVA, and equipment margin arrives years before power revenue does. 🏁 Among the pure plays, Oklo has the most cash and the earliest date, though that date is a demonstration reactor. Timelines as filed:
GE Vernova: Darlington unit 1 by the end of the decade, with OPG selling the power
Oklo: Aurora-INL startup targeted for 2028
X-energy: first commercial delivery in the early 2030s
NuScale: no firm order until a TVA agreement is signed
NANO Nuclear: research reactor construction targeted for mid-to-late 2027
Everything we report on ends up structured, sourced, and searchable in SMRbrief Pro, which is where the filing-by-filing detail behind this list lives. The next dates to watch are the NRC decision on Clinch River, the Long Mott safety evaluation due in November 2026, and any binding TVA power purchase agreement. 📅
If a portfolio manager had to pick one, does the profitable company with a side bet beat the one with $3.0 billion in cash and a 2028 date?