Fusion startups face a new challenge, one unrelated to plasma physics: Give the government shares in exchange for funding awards or go it alone?
Top-funded fusion startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems received an $85 million award from the federal government to advance conductors for fusion power plants.
Helion now has another $225 million to help speed development of its first fusion power plant, due to provide Microsoft with electricity in 2028.
Fusion power startup Cambridge Heavy Industries is building a small, laser-powered fusion device to fuel the coming wave of fusion power plants.
Fusion power plants will need a lot of lithium, and Licube is preparing to be a key supplier.
Type One Energy is betting that its lean approach to fusion power will get a power plant on the grid faster, and investors have rewarded it with $200 million.
Fusion startups are inking defense-related deals, reigniting the relationship between fusion and national security that might have gone dormant, but never completely disappeared.
Proxima Fusion’s new high-temperature superconducting magnet factory will help supply its commercial power plant.
Fusionality is developing control systems and simulation environments to help fusion power startups move faster.
The grid has been straining under the weight of new AI data centers, and that has utilities courting fusion startups.