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After a marked year largely due to uncertaintymore large-scale projects are nearing completion in 2026, according to Fluor.
On the company’s second-quarter earnings call last year, CEO Jim Breuer said customers were taking a “wait and see approach for several reasons,,” such as discussions over trade policy and global cost escalation, which ultimately led to project cancellations or extended postponements in some cases during this period.
But now, Fluor CEO Jim Breuer said “the uncertainty and hesitation we saw last year is receding,” in a positive sign for construction activity.
“As we head into 2026, we’re seeing an improvement in confidence among our customer base,” Breuer said during Call for results for the fourth quarter of Fluor on tuesday “This confidence is the result of high levels of new front-end work, as well as detailed negotiations on projects that we see becoming backlogged in the coming quarters, weighted towards the second half of 2026.”
For that reason, Fluor, based in Irving, Texas, expects the new awards this year to be “significantly higher than in 2025,” Breuer said. He singled out energy construction as a specific area for this rebound.
Jim Breuer
Courtesy of Fluor
“The outlook for 2026 includes our entry into the gas-fired power market,” Breuer said on the call. “We currently have limited notice to proceed with a confidential US utility for a large-scale project with the possibility of adding two additional facilities for the same customer.”
Those projects will begin on a reimbursable basis and then convert to a negotiated fixed price once the implementation plan and estimate are completed in late 2026 or early 2027, Breuer said.
He also said the company’s legacy fixed price exposure is shrinking. The backlog tied to older infrastructure projects has shrunk to $250 million from $700 million a year ago as that work nears completion.
Increase in nuclear projects
Breuer pointed out the prospects of the nuclear project during the call. The company recently advanced a Romanian small modular reactor project and is pursuing additional conventional and SMR opportunities with several technology providers, he said.
It was also sold 71 million shares of NuScale Powera small modular nuclear reactor company, for $1.35 billion, according to a separate statement on Tuesday. Fluor plans to monetize its remaining 40 million shares in the second quarter of 2026, according to the statement.
In the US, Fluor won an early engineering award linked to the expansion of a uranium enrichment plant in Ohio. The project is part of federal efforts to rebuild the nation’s nuclear fuel supply chains.
“In the nuclear power market, we are pleased with our progress in moving forward on current projects,” Breuer said. “We continue to expand and diversify our nuclear power portfolio, which we believe will offer significant growth potential over the medium to long term.”
Breuer also emphasized Fluor’s use of artificial intelligence in project planning.
“AI will enhance our ability to plan, design, acquire and build, improving the timeliness and quality of decisions, speeding execution and increasing our competitive advantage,” Breuer said. “Starting today, we’ve implemented AI across the project lifecycle, from predictive analytics on capital projects to intelligent pricing insights across the supply chain. We’ve also implemented AI applications across individual functional roles, including HR, finance, legal and procurement.”
Q4 by the numbers
According to the report, Fluor posted a loss of $1.57 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, a reversal from $1.86 billion in profit in the fourth quarter a year ago. Its revenue reached $4.18 billion in the fourth quarter, down about 2% from $4.26 billion in the same period a year earlier.
For the full year, Fluor posted a loss of $51 million in 2025, down from a profit of $2.15 billion in 2024. Its full-year revenue also fell about 5% from $16.32 billion in 2024 to $15.5 billion in 2025, the report said.
The portfolio fell roughly 10% from $28.48 billion a year ago to $25.54 billion, according to the report. New awards in the fourth quarter also fell compared to a year ago, falling to $1.13 billion from $2.31 billion in the same period in 2024.
The earnings report drew no enthusiasm from Andrew Wittman, senior research analyst at Baird, a Milwaukee-based financial services firm.
“Fluor’s 4Q25 print contained the usual mix of awards, charges, material cash flow movements, etc., but is unlikely to change the story much,” Wittman wrote in the research note. “We focus on awards, weak at $1.13 billion.”
