NuScale Power Reports Soon. Here's Why I'd Buy Before the Numbers Drop.

NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) last reported earnings in February. The results were not good. The company missed consensus estimates by a large margin on both a sales and earnings basis. This miss was largely driven by a $507 million accounting hit from an expected milestone payment.

Since those results were reported, NuScale Power stock has lost more than 30% of its value. But next month, the company has the opportunity to right the ship. On the next earnings call on May 7th, I'm looking for two critical updates that could change the recent trajectory of NuScale Power's stock price.

1. Project pipeline updates

From the start of 2024 through the summer of 2025, NuScale Power's stock price rose nearly 1,500%. It wasn't alone. Other small modular nuclear reactor stocks were also skyrocketing in value. Oklo (NYSE: OKLO), for example, saw its shares rise by more than 500% over the same time period.

What drove this massive increase in valuations? Mass bullishness around any investment deemed an AI stock certainly helped. After all, both NuScale Power and Oklo have clear market adoption potential for AI use cases, such as the ability to power AI data centers. But NuScale Power and Oklo were also revealing exciting updates regarding their project pipelines.

In recent quarters, NuScale Power's project pipeline has struggled relative to previous years. One of its largest projects saw its expected start day pushed from 2030 to 2033 or 2034. Meanwhile, its deal with ENTRA1 and TVA -- which intends to build the largest SMR plant in U.S. history -- is promising but is still largely conceptual. Many specific details remain to be announced.

Right now, the TVA deal is a "nonbinding collaborative agreement." But at some point, commitments have to turn into firm orders or not. Any positive updates on this deal or other deals would be a huge boon to the company's stock price.

Image source: Getty Images.

2. AI data center commentary

Apart from specific project pipeline updates, I will also be glued to NuScale Power's commentary regarding what the company is experiencing in terms of potential deals with data center customers.

In 2024, the company stressed that data center demand for new energy sources like its SMR technology would be rising rapidly. "U.S. data center power demand is expected to rise from 25 GW in 2024 to over 80 GW by 2030, requiring $500B+ of investment," one of the company's reports highlighted.

In 2025, however, the company grew more aggressive in its positioning. NuScale Power's CEO told investors that the company had signed five exploratory NDAs with "tier one hyper-scalers." Analysts, meanwhile, started calling the global data center buildout a "major tailwind" for NuScale Power's growth.

But so far in 2026, NuScale Power hasn't signed a single new data center customer. Can the company convert these conversations into customers? And what does management still have to say about the "coming" spending spree from AI operators? The answers to these questions should have a big impact on NuScale Power's stock price.

Ryan Vanzo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends NuScale Power. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.