A few years ago, a relatively under-the-radar commodity — uranium — came into the spotlight. Compared to many other commodities, uranium is in its early stages in the ETF world. But investor interest has been driving higher net inflows. Here is where the uranium ETF industry stands and why investors should pay attention to uranium ETFs in 2025.
Why Invest in Uranium?
On a high level, uranium is a clean energy story. Uranium is a radioactive metal that is mined from primarily Australia, Kazakhstan, and Canada (according to the World Nuclear Association). Uranium fuels nuclear energy. And unlike other types of clean energy (e.g., wind and solar), nuclear energy does not rely on the weather. Recently, nuclear energy has also received attention as an artificial intelligence play. As AI creates more demand for energy and stress on the energy grid, data centers are increasingly turning to nuclear power.
Uranium stocks aren’t household names. In fact, most aren’t even U.S. companies. Most uranium is mined in Kazakhstan (45% in 2022, according to the World Nuclear Association). But the majority of these investable stocks are actually Canadian companies. Canada has about 22% of global uranium mining, which is not insignificant. The world’s largest company by market cap is Cameco Corp (CCO CN), with over $32 billion. Cameco operates several uranium mines across North America and Kazakhstan. Previously, the company spun off its gold mining business as Centerra Gold (CGAU).
Investing in Uranium Through ETFs
Most commodity ETFs fall into two categories: physical commodities and derivatives-based funds. For those that followed along with the spot bitcoin launch, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is an example of a physical commodity fund because it stores physical bitcoin. Some physical commodity funds even deliver the commodity, like the VanEck Merk Gold ETF (OUNZ). That fund can deliver gold coins and bars to investors. The ProShares Bitcoin ETF (BITO) is an example of a futures-based ETF. You can also have equity ETFs that invest in mining stocks (e.g., gold mining ETFs or bitcoin mining ETFs). Stocks, however, only have some relationship to the underlying commodity. And that can vary by individual company risks, corporate actions, and investor sentiment.
The uranium ETF landscape is interesting because we do not yet have a physical commodity ETF — mostly equity ETFs and a few derivatives-based funds. Sprott, an asset manager well-known for its precious metals and materials funds, offers the world’s largest physical uranium fund. The Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (U.UN), also known as SPUT, is not an ETF but structured as a closed-end trust (similar to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) prior to its conversion). The fund holds 66.2 million pounds of physical uranium in the form of triuranium octoxide (U308) at physical locations in Canada, U.S., and France. In 2022, Sprott filed to list SPUT on a U.S. stock exchange. And also like GBTC’s prior attempts, this application was rejected by the SEC. The exact details of denial are unclear — a statement by Sprott points to “the structure of the Trust and the nature of the physical uranium market.”
Outside of SPUT, there are several ETFs that hold related equities (discussed in more detail below). These products currently hold some combination of uranium mining stocks, SPUT, and nuclear energy stocks. Recently in late 2024, a few more uranium ETFs have been filed. Roundhill filed for the Roundhill Physical Uranium ETF (UX) on November 15, 2024, which brought uranium back into the spotlight again. Despite its name “physical uranium,” the fund will not attempt to hold uranium. The fund instead intends to provide exposure to SPUT using swaps. On November 18, ProShares also filed for the ProShares Ultra Physical Uranium ETF, which is another 2x leveraged fund. While interest in the space grows, it does not seem likely that a true physical ETF sees approval in the near term due to the complexities of the uranium market.
Uranium ETFs in Detail
- The Global X Uranium ETF (URA) is the largest ETF of the group, with almost $3.5 billion in assets. URA tracks companies with exposure to the uranium industry (including mining, exploration, and other technologies). URA has a very large 25% exposure to Cameco and a 9% exposure to the SPUT. The max weight of a pure-play company caps at 22.5%. The max weight of a physical trust is 10% (the deviation between max weights and actual weights is from time between rebalances).
- The Sprott Uranium Miners ETF (URNM) is very similar to URA on the surface, but an obvious difference is its weighting structure. While URNM has a slightly smaller weight in Cameco (~18%), it has almost 15% exposure to a Kazakhstani company called NAC Kazatoprom (KAL LI). It also has a 12% exposure to SPUT. These three top holdings sum to almost half of the ETF’s total weight.
- The VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF (NLR) is the oldest of the group, launching more than three years prior to URA. In addition to uranium mining stocks, NLR also focuses on nuclear energy stocks. And unlike most of its peers, it does not have SPUT as a holding. Cameco is only its fourth-largest holding after Constellation Energy, Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), and PG&E Corp (PCG).
- The Sprott Junior Uranium Miners ETF (URNJ) follows a similar strategy to its counterpart URNM except it focuses on “junior minors,” miners with under $2 billion in market capitalization with potential for revenue and asset growth. The ETF removes some of the larger producers in URNM and SPUT to focus on the smaller constituents. As a result, close to 80% of its holdings by weight are also in URNM.
- The Themes Uranium & Nuclear ETF (URAN) is the newest of its peers. It launched at the end of September and only has $4.5 million in assets so far. URAN is significantly cheaper than its peers, at only 35 bps versus around 60-80 bps for its peers. Like NLR, it also focuses on nuclear energy companies and has a large allocation to the utilities sector.
- Currently, only two leveraged ETFs target 2x the price of uranium. The Direxion Daily Uranium Industry Bull 2X Shares (URAA) does this by tracking the Solactive United States Uranium and Nuclear Energy ETF, which tracks the price of U.S. listed ETFs with a focus on nuclear energy. The Defiance Daily Target 2x Long Uranium ETF (URAX) targets 2x daily return of URA. Note that these leveraged ETFs should only be held for a single day at a time.
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