South Korea is reviewing a proposal for the US and South Korea to jointly acquire a stake in Westinghouse Electric Company, according to unnamed officials in Seoul cited by Korea Economic Daily. South Korea’s government denied that account within hours, saying no such plan is part of the countries’ strategic investment program.
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The report described one option under review as a joint investment vehicle that Washington and Seoul would fund together to lead construction of new US reactors. South Korea’s government is weighing Korea Electric Power Corp. (NYSE: KEP) as the buyer. It said it could turn to a $200 billion Korea-US strategic investment fund built during last year’s tariff negotiations rather than have KEPCO spend its own money.
South Korea’s government denied the report within hours of its publication, saying Westinghouse is not part of the country’s strategic investment program.
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Cameco Corp. (NYSE: CCJ; TSX: CCO) and Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM; TSX: BAM) closed their acquisition of Westinghouse in November 2023, with Cameco taking 49% and Brookfield’s consortium taking the other 51%.
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A Korean stake would come with an already crowded set of conditions attached. Westinghouse confidentially filed for a US initial public offering on July 31, and its owners struck a separate framework with the Commerce Department to build eight to 10 new large reactors at a cost of at least $80 billion, with the Department of Energy committing up to $17.5 billion in loans toward early equipment procurement.
If Westinghouse’s valuation reaches $30 billion, the Commerce Department framework would compel an IPO and give the US government an 8% stake.
South Korea’s path into the US market runs through Westinghouse almost by necessity. Westinghouse and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power) settled a bitter intellectual-property dispute over KHNP’s APR1400 reactor design in January 2025, and that settlement excludes KHNP from bidding on new large reactor projects across North America, the EU outside Czechia, the UK, and Japan unless it partners with Westinghouse.
KHNP and Westinghouse have been discussing a joint venture to enter the US market since at least August 2025, an arrangement Korean officials have described as a “Team KORUS” framework, though talks over the venture’s ownership structure remain unresolved.
The report also comes as Cameco’s own numbers show the strain of the Westinghouse bet. The company’s second-quarter profit fell to $25 million from $321 million a year earlier, a drop it attributed mainly to weaker equity earnings from the Westinghouse stake, even as the unit’s IPO process moves forward.
