Despite an upcoming leadership change, Fluor remains focused on capturing key opportunities identified in late 2024, according to the company’s Feb. 18 full-year earnings report.
The Irving, Texas-based contractor announced Jim Breuer will become CEO on May 1, succeeding David Constable, who will transition to executive chairman. The shift, however, won’t change Fluor’s priorities, executives said.
Data centers will remain a key growth driver, according to the company. Fluor recently signed a master agreement with a major technology provider and has begun initial work under the deal, said Breuer.
“We’re in conversations or have agreements with the top four data center developers,” said Breuer. “We continue to see this market as a significant contributor to the grow and execute phase of our strategy.”
That growth is fueling demand for power solutions, an area where Fluor has seen an opportunity for the firm’s energy business, according to Constable. The company is already engaged in front-end design for the expansion of a nuclear power plant in Romania, and sees a broader role for nuclear power in meeting the power needs of hyperscale data centers in the U.S.
Jim Breuer
Courtesy of Fluor
“Our expertise in power generation, both thermal and nuclear, is going to play a key role in supporting our client needs,” said Constable during the call. “We’re already currently ramping up our capabilities further on the power side.”
Fluor is also navigating the commercialization of NuScale, the small modular reactor firm in which it holds a significant stake. The company remains in negotiations to monetize its position while advancing NuScale’s push toward deployment.
“The timeline to monetization has been slower than desired,” said Constable. “However, anything in the nuclear space that is in startup, pre-commercialization mode does take patience, and we want to get this right for decades to come, not just the next few years.”
As data center projects continue to scale up, several data center developers are increasingly turning to nuclear power to meet energy demands. Constable said Fluor is positioning itself to be at the center of this transition.
“The numbers are just astronomical for power demand for data centers,” said Constable. “We’ve got 26,000 megawatts installed in the U.S. right now. They say 92,000 megawatts is required by the end of the decade. So, a big focus here on data centers, combined with power generation.”
On the infrastructure front, Fluor reported steady progress on several major projects, including the 94%-complete Gordie Howe International Bridge and the LAX Automated People Mover, both of which are on track for substantial completion in late 2025. Meanwhile, semiconductor-related work is growing, with Fluor securing additional tool installation contracts from a major manufacturer in Arizona, said Breuer.
Fluor’s federal contracting business has remained stable, with ongoing work for the Department of Energy, Department of Defense and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Breuer. The firm expects these contracts to continue given their ties to national security and critical infrastructure.
“The project work we do and the support work we do for the government is tied to their very critical missions, so we expect the work to continue,” said Breuer during the call. “We feel good about the continuity of them. We feel good about our future opportunities with these two big departments, with FEMA, and other civil agencies that we’re pursuing work for.”
Takeaways from earnings
Fluor reported it earned $1.86 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024, a positive reversal compared to the $21 million loss a year ago. Its revenue reached $4.26 billion, about a 12% gain from $3.82 billion in last year’s fourth quarter.
For the full year in 2024, Fluor earned $2.15 billion, a significant increase from $139 million in profits in 2023. Its revenue for 2024 hit $16.32 billion, up about 5% from $15.47 billion in 2023.
The company’s backlog fell to $28.48 billion in 2024, around a 3% drop from $29.44 billion a year ago. New awards in the 2024 fourth quarter reached $2.31 billion, nearly a 70% drop compared to $7.61 billion in new awards in the 2023 fourth quarter.
“The fourth-quarter 2024 report was disappointing with the initial 2025 outlook likely viewed as soft,” said Andrew Wittmann, senior research analyst at Baird, a Milwaukee-based financial services company, in a research note. “Investors looking for a more concrete path to NuScale monetization were left disappointed with only a $1.6 billion non-cash mark-to-market being run through the income statement.”
