Holtec postpones IPO, citing 'adverse market sentiment'

US nuclear vendor Holtec International on Sept. 17 postponed a proposed $100 million initial public offering amid a sectorwide selloff of stock in developers of small modular reactors.

Holtec will maintain its registration statement on file with the US SEC, the company said, but cited "adverse market sentiment" that "has affected the equity markets in general and the nuclear sector in particular in the past two weeks" as an obstacle to going public in the near future. It noted data center development uncertainty, rising energy costs, ongoing military conflicts and global trade tensions, and swiftly rising interest rates all weighing on industry share prices.

Holtec said in a statement it plans to reevaluate "opportunities to access the public markets when we believe the timing and market conditions are appropriate," though analysts at Jefferies in a Sept. 17 report called the news "a setback."

Holtec's primary business is providing storage systems for spent fuel, and the company is the first to attempt to restart a reactor that has been permanently shut down for decommissioning, the Palisades plant in Michigan, which is on track for this year. In addition, Holtec plans to license and build its SMR-300 advanced small modular reactor (SMR) at the Palisades site, though the company has yet to file a license application with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the design.

Over the last three months, public SMR developers have seen their share prices plummet, with X-Energy Inc. down 24%, NuScale Power Corp. down 23%, Oklo Inc. down 35% and NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. down 40% as of the Sept. 17 market close.

X-Energy debuted on the Nasdaq exchange on April 24.

Joseph Osha, senior managing director of equity research at Guggenheim Partners, attributed the slump to "the market's assessment of risk," as opposed to the companies' business models.

"Higher interest rates do have a way of impacting companies with more difficult-to-see business futures," he said in an interview.

Waning enthusiasm about the technology, more than a year after President Donald Trump signed executive orders launching an effort to increase US nuclear generation capacity from 100 gigawatts to 400 GW by 2050, may also be contributing to negative investor sentiment.

"You could argue people maybe got a little overenthusiastic before, and we often see these kinds of cycles when a new technology or industry is showing up, where you get an initial period of investor euphoria," Osha said.

The Trump administration in October 2025 announced a partnership with infrastructure giant Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. and Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC, jointly owned by Brookfield and Canadian mining company Cameco Corp., to build "at least" $80 billion in new nuclear reactors across the US, funded through trade agreements with Japan.

The strategic partnership will deploy Westinghouse models such as the AP300 SMR.

In March, the administration confirmed four new US nuclear and gas generation projects in connection with a $550 billion trade deal with Japan, including a deal with GE Vernova Inc. to construct up to 3 GW of BWRX-300 SMRs in Alabama and Tennessee.

GE Vernova and Westinghouse already account for a significant share of the SMR market, leaving limited opportunities for smaller public and private firms, according to Osha.

"There's probably not enough room for all of them," he said.

Westinghouse in July announced plans to sell company shares to the public, and the US government could require an IPO under certain circumstances, according to the partnership arrangement.

In the meantime, investors are differentiating between SMR companies based on firm contracts.

During an August conference call, X-Energy CEO J. Clay Sell said the company was "in the final throes of an agreement with a major investor-owned utility" for a 1-GW project. Kairos Power LLC will supply the Tennessee Valley Authority grid with up to 50 megawatts as part of a power purchase agreement to serve Google LLC datacenters.

Oklo and Holtec, by contrast, have only signed nonbinding agreements, with Holtec evaluating opportunities to deploy SMRs with Entergy Corp. and South Korea's Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. to data centers throughout the Gulf South.

The X-Energy update "provides an important contrast with the Oklo arrangement, which remains a [letter of intent], although management indicated the parties are progressing toward definitive documentation," analysts at Evercore wrote Aug. 6.

Osha asserted that PPAs do not necessarily indicate commercialization, even though there is "an enormous preoccupation" with them.

"I agree with the focus because getting a first machine working in this industry takes a lot of money," he said. "Where I disagree is that this notion of a PPA comprises some kind of technology validation."