Major South Korean conglomerates are considering a joint investment to acquire a stake in Westinghouse, the U.S. nuclear power company, industry sources said. The plan would have private companies join a government-led investment spearheaded by Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), easing the financial burden on the state-run firms while giving the private sector a foothold in the U.S. nuclear market.
According to business and government sources on the 14th, the government is pursuing a plan to acquire a 5% to 10% stake in Westinghouse through a consortium that would include Samsung C&T, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, GS E&C, Doosan Enerbility and SK Innovation. The investment is estimated at about 4 trillion won ($2.8 billion). The government earlier proposed that domestic nuclear engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies take part in the stake purchase and is now coordinating each company's investment intentions and the size of its contribution, sources said.
The government's decision to team up with private companies is driven first by the need to ease the financial burden on state-run utilities. Investment banking sources say Westinghouse could be valued at as much as $30 billion if it goes public. Under the South Korea-U.S. agreement, Korea can buy shares at a 10% discount to the offering price, but even so, securing a 10% stake would cost about $2.7 billion, or roughly 3.7 trillion won. KEPCO and KHNP would find it difficult to shoulder that alone, officials judged.
The participating companies expect the equity investment to widen their business opportunities in the United States. South Korea and the U.S. recently agreed to spend $120 billion to build eight nuclear reactors in the United States. Samsung C&T and Hyundai Engineering & Construction see an opening to win construction work on those projects, while Doosan Enerbility is eyeing orders for reactors and steam generators.
SK Group has also signaled strong interest in joining the investment, citing rising power demand driven by the growth of artificial intelligence data centers and the semiconductor industry. With stable electricity supply emerging as a core competitive factor in the AI business, the group wants to secure energy infrastructure, including nuclear power, as a future growth engine. SK Inc. and SK Innovation invested $250 million in 2022 in TerraPower, the U.S. small modular reactor (SMR) company founded by Bill Gates, becoming major shareholders. If the new investment goes ahead, SK could expand its nuclear business beyond SMRs into large-scale reactors.
That has fueled speculation that SK Group could become the largest contributor to the private consortium. SK said no decision has been made. "It is true that there is active interest at the group level, but this is still under internal review and nothing has been finalized," an SK official said.