I have two responses.
First is the fact that most of these private companies are not just investing their own funding; they are looking for public funding. In every country where SMRs are going forward, the United States, Canada or the U.K., they are all looking for public funding for a lot of their research.
The second thing to note is that companies make investments based on their assessments, but their assessments can be wrong. You've seen this time and again in the nuclear sector. Many companies have invested in various designs that have never sold. For example, Westinghouse invested a huge amount of money in what was called the AP600 reactor, which was never sold. It was pursued for over a decade. Subsequently, Westinghouse went through an SMR process called the Westinghouse SMR. Then, in 2014, when it realized the United States Department of Energy was not going to give it any money, it pulled out of that effort. While pulling out, its CEO said that the problem was not with the technology; the problem was that there are no customers.
If you have this question, it is a question private investors can probably best answer. I can't be in their heads to understand what they are thinking.