Westinghouse, the nuclear business that helped blow a hole in Toshiba’s balance sheet, is preparing for a different headline: a potential valuation above $50 billion.
Bloomberg reports that the American nuclear king could publicly file for an IPO as soon as October. It submitted confidential paperwork in July, and while nothing is set in stone yet, the proposed valuation would crown a wild rehabilitation.
The collapse came in 2017, when Toshiba-owned Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 under the weight of cost overruns at the miserably managed Vogtle and Summer projects in Georgia and South Carolina. Brookfield Business Partners and institutional investors bought it out of bankruptcy in 2018 in a $4.6 billion deal.
Brookfield spent the next several years rehabilitating the company and bolting on new acquisitions. Westinghouse acquired Rolls-Royce’s systems and services business, Laveer Engineering, BHI Energy and Spain’s Tecnatom. By 2022, Brookfield counted eight completed acquisitions since 2019.
The revamped business emphasized technology and services, instead of emphasizing project management, which came with the construction risks that sank it under Toshiba.
Cameco arrived through a second transaction in 2023. It paid $2.1 billion for 49% while Brookfield and friends took the other 51%. The final enterprise valuation was $8.2 billion, including $3.8 billion of debt retained by Westinghouse.
At $50 billion, the headline valuation would be roughly eleven times the 2018 deal.
Recall the October 2025 agreement between Cameco, Brookfield and the US government that brought up the IPO idea in the first place. The program contemplated up to ten AP1000 reactors and at least $80 billion of investment, supported by federal financing and permitting assistance.
Everything seems to be moving along swimmingly, however, the whole point was to start putting some steel in the ground, which seems to have been forgotten about at this point...
When the deal was originally announced back then, the USG’s participation interest would vest after a final investment decision and binding agreements committing it to at least $80 billion of reactor projects. Once vested, it would receive 20% of cumulative cash distributions above $17.5 billion.
An IPO would convert that interest into a five-year warrant to acquire equity equivalent to 20% of the company’s public value above $17.5 billion, measured at exercise.
With the interest vested, Washington could require an IPO on or before January 2029 if the opening valuation reached at least $30 billion. Nothing's been discussed yet to indicate that specific trigger was pulled to instigate the current IPO.
Questions still remain as to the exact ownership structure of Westinghouse post-IPO, but on their 2026Q2 call, Cameco CEO Tim Getzler indicated ownership will still stay with them and Brookfield: “We and Brookfield control Westinghouse today; we don't expect that to change”