On September 4, Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) said its energy and supercon technologies unit, Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies (or BEST), had struck a supply collaboration with Luvata Materials & Solutions to scale up production of RRP superconductors for magnetic confinement fusion. The deal lands right as governments and private developers from Europe to South Korea race to build fusion demonstration plants, and it comes a month after Bruker’s core scientific instruments business showed its first real signs of stabilizing. Two very different stories are converging inside one stock.
A Front Row Seat To Fusion
The Luvata tie-up is not Bruker’s first rodeo in fusion. BEST and Luvata previously supplied materials and expertise to ITER, the international fusion megaproject, and to the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, two of the most advanced superconducting plasma facilities ever built. Their RRP superconductors, wires built with the Rod-Restack Process to withstand field strengths between 12 and 20 Tesla, already run inside CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and in ultra-high field NMR magnets. That track record matters now because fusion programs are ramping across Europe, the Americas, China, Japan and South Korea, and Gauss Fusion has already begun evaluating RRP superconductors for its Gauss Industrial Demonstrator and GIGA power plant platform.
The segment is already delivering. On August 4, Bruker reported that BEST revenue climbed 11.9% year over year to $74.2 million in the second quarter, with organic growth of 8.9% net of intercompany eliminations, while first-half BEST revenue rose 12.3% to $141 million. That growth showed up in Bruker’s bottom line too. Non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 14.1% from 9% a year earlier, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share grew to $0.49 from $0.32, results strong enough that management kept its full-year non-GAAP EPS growth target of 15% to 17% intact.
Fusion’s Payoff Is Still Theoretical
None of that shows up on a GAAP basis. Bruker’s second-quarter GAAP operating results swung to a $65.3 million loss, versus $11.9 million of GAAP operating income a year earlier, dragged down largely by a $134.9 million non-cash goodwill charge. GAAP diluted earnings per share swung to a loss of $0.41 from a profit of $0.05, and for the first half of 2026 the company posted a GAAP diluted loss per share of $0.39. Impairments do not spend cash, but they are a reminder that some of what Bruker paid for in past acquisitions is now being written down.
The core business also has not fully turned the corner. Total second quarter revenue grew only 2.8% organically, or 3.4% excluding tariff refunds, and first half organic revenue actually fell 0.8% year over year. CEO Frank Laukien acknowledged that US academic demand stayed soft in the quarter, even as bookings in Europe and China picked up. Fusion, meanwhile, remains a small piece of the business. BEST’s $74.2 million in quarterly revenue is less than 9% of total company revenue, and the Luvata agreement itself came with no disclosed contract value, order volume, or timeline, so investors are being asked to price in a growth story that has not yet produced a number.
Wall Street Isn’t Fully Convinced
Hedge fund ownership of Bruker climbed from 34 funds to 45 funds quarter over quarter, which reads as institutional money adding to positions rather than trimming them. Short interest, though, sits at 14.91% of float, a level that signals a real and sizable bear camp is still positioned against the stock. Shares trade at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 15.22 as of September 4, a modest multiple that does not appear to be pricing in much fusion-driven upside yet. That combination suggests that the market is still waiting for proof before it commits either way.
The Bet Investors Are Weighing
Bruker is trying to be two companies at once: a legacy scientific instruments maker working through a soft academic market, and an early mover in what could become a critical fusion energy supply chain. The Luvata collaboration adds credibility to the second story by putting Bruker’s superconductors in front of projects like Gauss Fusion’s demonstrator, but it does not yet come with a dollar figure attached. The first story is showing tangible progress, with BEST revenue growing double digits and margins widening, even as GAAP results were dragged down by a one-time impairment charge.
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