Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom reported what it called solid overall results for 2025, but new figures suggest that the company’s once-rapidly expanding foreign earnings may be starting to weaken. At the same time, major shifts in the global nuclear fuel market are underway: China is buying record amounts of Russian enriched uranium, while the United States is investing billions of dollars to rebuild its domestic enrichment capacity and reduce dependence on Russian nuclear fuel.

Rosatom’s foreign revenues take a dip…

In early January 2026, Rosatom Director General Alexei Likhachev presented the corporation’s annual results. According to the data he cited, Rosatom’s open (non-classified) revenue exceeded 3 trillion rubles in 2025, with roughly half generated by new high-technology projects developed in recent years.

But Rosatom’s foreign revenues slipped a bit in 2025, down to $16.5 billion from more than $18 billion the previous year. While that’s only a modest decline, it nonetheless marks the first drop in several years for a company that has long relied on international expansion as a cornerstone of its geopolitical strategy. Rosatom still maintains a $200 billion portfolio of foreign orders, largely tied to the construction of nuclear power plants abroad, including some in Europe, as well as long-term fuel supply contracts.

In fact, despite the recent downturn, Rosatom remains one of the world’s most powerful nuclear energy companies, controlling roughly 40 percent of global uranium enrichment services and a significant share of the nuclear fuel market.

Bellona nuclear analyst Dmitry Gorchakov writes that Rosatom’s downward blip in export revenue could reflect growing pressure on Rosatom’s international business. Western governments have increasingly sought to reduce dependence on Russian nuclear technology and fuel supplies as the invasion of Ukraine grinds on, while sanctions and political tensions complicate new contracts in some regions.

At the same time, Rosatom is increasingly redirecting its efforts toward markets in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa—regions where demand for nuclear energy is rising and political resistance to cooperation with Russia is generally lower, Gorchakov observes.

While China becomes a major buyer of Russian enriched uranium

One of the most significant developments in Asia, as well as on the global nuclear fuel market, is the rapid expansion of China’s imports of Russian enriched uranium.

China significantly increased its purchases of Russian enriched uranium in 2025, helping drive overall imports to a record level. Chinese utilities spent billions of dollars on imported nuclear fuel as Beijing continued to expand one of the world’s fastest-growing nuclear power programs.

According to industry data, China imported hundreds of additional tons of Russian enriched uranium product compared with the previous year—an increase large enough to approach the annual fuel requirements of France’s entire nuclear reactor fleet.

For Rosatom, these sales provide a valuable alternative market at a time when Western countries are attempting to reduce reliance on Russian nuclear fuel services.

Bellona’s Gorchakov notes that this shift reflects a broader geopolitical realignment in the nuclear energy sector. As the United States and European countries attempt to build independent supply chains, Russia is strengthening cooperation with countries that are rapidly expanding their nuclear power capacity—most notably China.

At the same time, Gorchakov warns that relying too heavily on a limited number of large customers could create new vulnerabilities for Rosatom in the future. Moreover, available data indicate that Russia sells enriched uranium to China at significantly lower prices than to Western countries, making such a shift in buyers less financially advantageous for Rosatom.

The US plays catch-up, investing $2.7 billion in enrichment

Across the ocean, the United States is attempting to rebuild domestic uranium enrichment capabilities after decades of decline.

In January 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $2.7 billion in funding to expand domestic uranium enrichment capacity over the next decade. The funding will support the production of both conventional low-enriched uranium (LEU) used in contemporary nuclear reactors and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), a specialized fuel required for many next-generation nuclear reactor designs.

Three companies—American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter, and Orano Federal Services—received contracts of roughly $900 million each to expand enrichment capacity in the United States.

The initiative is part of a broader effort by Washington to reduce dependence on Russian nuclear fuel supplies, Bellona’s Gorchakov writes. Russia currently dominates the global enrichment market and remains the only commercial supplier of certain types of advanced nuclear fuel.

Taken together, these developments highlight a rapidly changing global nuclear fuel market. Rosatom still occupies a dominant position thanks to its vertically integrated nuclear fuel cycle and extensive reactor construction portfolio. But the combination of declining export revenue, Western efforts to diversify fuel supply, and growing competition in enrichment technologies suggests that the company’s position could face increasing challenges in the coming decade. At the same time, rising nuclear energy demand—particularly in Asia—means that global competition for uranium enrichment services is likely to intensify.

As Bellona Gorchakov points out, the nuclear fuel market is entering a period of strategic transformation. The balance between major suppliers such as Russia, the United States, and emerging nuclear powers will play a role in shaping the future of global nuclear energy.