Newcleo, the advanced nuclear technology developer specializing in reactors that run on recycled nuclear waste, has been the subject of speculation regarding a potential public listing through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. No such deal has been confirmed, and the company remains privately held.

Newcleo has raised over $755 million in private capital since its founding in 2021, backed by investors including Azimut, Exor Ventures, and Bpifrance, the French public investment bank. In 2024, the company hit a valuation of approximately 1.5 billion euros during a funding round. An additional $85 million growth round was completed in early 2026.

What Newcleo actually builds

Newcleo develops lead-cooled fast modular reactors, a type of small modular reactor (SMR) that uses mixed oxide fuel, known as MOX, derived from recycled nuclear waste.

In October 2025, the company entered a strategic agreement with Oklo, the US-based small modular reactor developer that went public via its own SPAC merger in 2024. That deal involves potential investments approaching $2 billion and focuses on plutonium fuel infrastructure. In February 2026, Newcleo announced a collaboration on the LEANDREA demonstrator project. The company is targeting commercial deployment of its reactors by the early 2030s.

What this means for investors

CEO Stefano Buono has previously expressed caution about public market conditions. The company’s technology is still pre-commercial, and no lead-cooled fast reactors have been deployed at commercial scale. NuScale Power, another SMR developer, went public via SPAC in 2022. Oklo trades on the New York Stock Exchange.