Trump Westinghouse investment could lead to IPO with U.S. as shareholder
The Vogtle nuclear power plant is located in Burke County, near Waynesboro, Georgia, USA. The two existing units each include a Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR) with a General Electric turbine and electric generator, producing approximately 2,400 MW of electricity. Construction of two Westinghouse-built AP 1000 reactors continues here.
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The Trump administration’s plan to spend tens of billions of dollars on Westinghouse nuclear plants could turn it into an independent, publicly traded company with the U.S. government as its major shareholder.
Department of Commerce signed an agreement last week With Westinghouse owners cameco and Brookfield Asset Management will spend $80 billion to build the company’s nuclear power plants across the U.S.
Under the agreement, the U.S. government is given a participating interest in Westinghouse and can request an initial public offering in or before January 2029 if the company’s value rises to $30 billion or more.
The government could have an 8% stake in Westinghouse under that scenario, Cameco Chief Operating Officer Grant Isaac said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Wednesday. Isaac said he had no right to acquire shares in Cameco or Brookfield under the agreement.
Cameco will consider spinning off Westinghouse as an independent company in 2029, depending on conditions, the executive said.
“There’s definitely a unique interest in investing in just Westinghouse,” Isaac said. “Cameco is a funny proxy for this. Brookfield is probably an even funnier proxy for investing in Westinghouse.”
Cameco is one of the world’s largest uranium miners and Brookfield is one of the largest investors in energy production.
“We will keep all options on the table,” Isaac said. “This partnership agreement does not force us to exit Westinghouse in 2029. We do not have to sell any of our shares – or if the value of Westinghouse is so significant, we can sell when that window opens in 2029.”
US government funding
The government’s interest in Westinghouse will only be valid if it makes a final investment decision with definitive agreements to build new reactors in the United States with a total value of $80 billion.
Isaac said the U.S. could use tools such as Department of Energy loans or financing from “other jurisdictions” to finance projects, among other options.
“We are confident that there will be great interest in this minimum $80 billion investment to kick-start the process,” the executive said.
Westinghouse has designed a large, modern nuclear reactor called AP1000 that the Trump administration wants to deploy across the United States to meet growing electricity demand from data centers and manufacturing. It produces one gigawatt of electricity, enough for more than 750,000 homes.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in May calling for the United States to begin construction of 10 major new nuclear reactors by 2030. Westinghouse CEO Dan Sumner said the company would make that decision in July. Meet Trump’s call with the AP1000.
But Westinghouse has struggled in the past to deliver the AP1000 on time and on budget. It went bankrupt in 2017 due to cost overruns on major nuclear projects in Georgia and South Carolina.
The first two AP1000 reactors in the US came online in 2023 and 2024 at the Vogtle Plant in Georgia, but the South Carolina project was canceled.
Westinghouse was acquired by Brookfield and Cameco in 2023, five years after it emerged from bankruptcy. Brookfield owns a 51% stake in Westinghouse and Cameco owns a 49% stake.
Isaac said the nuclear industry needs large quantities of reactors to stimulate the market and supply chains. The U.S. government fulfills that role, the administrator said.
“What the U.S. government has done is to step in and commit to being encouraging; their commitment is to facilitate financing,” he said.
