Top 16 Fusion Energy startups in USA
USA is the world’s largest hub for nuclear fusion startups, that utilize every major approach — from tokamaks and stellarators to FRCs, Z-pinches, magnetic mirrors and inertial fusion. Decades of research at national laboratories are now being combined with private capital through DOE programs such as INFUSE, FIRE and the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. With this support the US startups are now moving beyond pure plasma-physics research toward the much broader challenge of building an entire fusion industry, including superconducting magnets, tritium fuel cycles, breeding blankets, plasma-facing materials, AI simulations and building commercial power plants.
1
Funding: $3.9B
Commonwealth Fusion Systems is collaborating with MIT to create SPARC - the world's first fusion device that produces plasma that generates more energy than consumes. This compact, high-field tokamak will be built using high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. CFS technology uses the new superconductor Rare Earth Barium Copper Oxide (REBCO) to produce the most powerful and most compact fusion magnets. Once SPARC is built, the company plans to build the world's first fusion power plant capable of generating hundreds of megawatts of power. CFS research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems is collaborating with MIT to create SPARC - the world's first fusion device that produces plasma that generates more energy than consumes. This compact, high-field tokamak will be built using high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. CFS technology uses the new superconductor Rare Earth Barium Copper Oxide (REBCO) to produce the most powerful and most compact fusion magnets. Once SPARC is built, the company plans to build the world's first fusion power plant capable of generating hundreds of megawatts of power. CFS research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
2
Funding: $1.5B
TAE Technologies is on a course to commercial fusion energy. It's fusion machine design is compact and linear so a commercial fusion power plant would be easily expandable for mass manufacturing. TAE is pursuing fusion with hydrogen-boron (a.k.a. p-B11 or p11B) because it is plentiful and radiation-free, making it the most sustainable option for running and maintaining commercial fusion power plants. TAE’s method to generate fusion power is called Advanced beam-driven Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC). All together, TAE’s approach to fusion can deliver a affordable product that has high energy density, high availability of fuel and no risk of pollution, proliferation, breakdown or toxic waste, making it the ultimate clean energy source.
TAE Technologies is on a course to commercial fusion energy. It's fusion machine design is compact and linear so a commercial fusion power plant would be easily expandable for mass manufacturing. TAE is pursuing fusion with hydrogen-boron (a.k.a. p-B11 or p11B) because it is plentiful and radiation-free, making it the most sustainable option for running and maintaining commercial fusion power plants. TAE’s method to generate fusion power is called Advanced beam-driven Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC). All together, TAE’s approach to fusion can deliver a affordable product that has high energy density, high availability of fuel and no risk of pollution, proliferation, breakdown or toxic waste, making it the ultimate clean energy source.
3
Funding: $1.5B
Helion Energy uses fusion energy to provide pure, safe electricity. Helion's fusion generator elevates fusion (Deuterium and helium-3) fuel to ultra-high temperatures to achieve plasma conditions and directly obtains electricity with a high-efficiency pulsed approach. Magnets confine the plasma in a Field Reversed Configuration and speed up two FRCs to 1 million mph from opposite ends of the generator. When the FRCs collide in the center of the system, they are further compressed by a strong magnetic field until they reach fusion temperatures greater than 100M degrees Celsius (150M already achieved). At this temperature, the deuterium and helium-3 ions are moving fast enough to surpass the forces that would otherwise keep them apart, and they fuse. This emits more energy than is consumed by the fusion process.
Helion Energy uses fusion energy to provide pure, safe electricity. Helion's fusion generator elevates fusion (Deuterium and helium-3) fuel to ultra-high temperatures to achieve plasma conditions and directly obtains electricity with a high-efficiency pulsed approach. Magnets confine the plasma in a Field Reversed Configuration and speed up two FRCs to 1 million mph from opposite ends of the generator. When the FRCs collide in the center of the system, they are further compressed by a strong magnetic field until they reach fusion temperatures greater than 100M degrees Celsius (150M already achieved). At this temperature, the deuterium and helium-3 ions are moving fast enough to surpass the forces that would otherwise keep them apart, and they fuse. This emits more energy than is consumed by the fusion process.
4
Funding: $1B
SHINE Technologies develops fusion technology primarily to inspect industrial components and produce medical isotopes. It already operates fusion technology at industrial scale using its Fusion Neutron Generator. In it high-current particle beams strike a tritium gas target, producing an intense flow of neutrons. The company is also developing technology to recycle used nuclear fuel from commercial fission reactors. SHINE's ultimate long-term goal is commercializing fusion energy for power generation, which the company plans to pursue after establishing its medical isotope and waste recycling businesses
SHINE Technologies develops fusion technology primarily to inspect industrial components and produce medical isotopes. It already operates fusion technology at industrial scale using its Fusion Neutron Generator. In it high-current particle beams strike a tritium gas target, producing an intense flow of neutrons. The company is also developing technology to recycle used nuclear fuel from commercial fission reactors. SHINE's ultimate long-term goal is commercializing fusion energy for power generation, which the company plans to pursue after establishing its medical isotope and waste recycling businesses
5
Funding: $900M
Pacific Fusion is developing a high-gain pulsed magnetic fusion system. Pulsed magnetic fusion involves rapidly compressing a fuel in a container with a powerful magnetic field created by passing high, rapidly increasing electric current through it. This compression heats and inertially holds the fuel, converting hydrogen into helium and releasing massive amounts of energy. The company has eliminated the magnetic system to simplify the system and its maintenance requirements. The system is highly modular, enabling affordable manufacturing and rapid iteration. It uses commonly available materials, simplifying supply chains. The modular pulser can be optimized for a wide range of target designs.
Pacific Fusion is developing a high-gain pulsed magnetic fusion system. Pulsed magnetic fusion involves rapidly compressing a fuel in a container with a powerful magnetic field created by passing high, rapidly increasing electric current through it. This compression heats and inertially holds the fuel, converting hydrogen into helium and releasing massive amounts of energy. The company has eliminated the magnetic system to simplify the system and its maintenance requirements. The system is highly modular, enabling affordable manufacturing and rapid iteration. It uses commonly available materials, simplifying supply chains. The modular pulser can be optimized for a wide range of target designs.
6
Funding: $450M
Inertia is a fusion-energy company that is taking the most direct, scientifically-proven path to commercializing fusion, leveraging the only successful achievement of fusion ignition, using a process that was pioneered at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The startup’s reactor relies on a form of fusion known as inertial confinement. In Inertia’s flavor of inertial confinement, lasers bombard a fuel target, compressing the fuel until atoms inside fuse and release energy. The technique is based on NIF’s designs, in which laser light is converted into X-rays inside the target. The X-rays are what ultimately heat and compress the fuel pellet.
Inertia is a fusion-energy company that is taking the most direct, scientifically-proven path to commercializing fusion, leveraging the only successful achievement of fusion ignition, using a process that was pioneered at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The startup’s reactor relies on a form of fusion known as inertial confinement. In Inertia’s flavor of inertial confinement, lasers bombard a fuel target, compressing the fuel until atoms inside fuse and release energy. The technique is based on NIF’s designs, in which laser light is converted into X-rays inside the target. The X-rays are what ultimately heat and compress the fuel pellet.
7
Funding: $370.5M
Type One Energy uses an enhanced version of a 1957 experimental Stellarator invented by US scientist Lyman Spitzer. The co-founders of Type One Energy built the world’s first optimized stellarator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1990s and conducted foundational stellarator research on it in the early 2000s. Using non-planar, high temperature superconducting magnets to optimize plasma flow, Type One Energy can surpass all fundamental technical barriers to achieving fusion energy at commercial scale. The company is building Infinity One prototype together with the 400 MWe Infinity Two fusion power plant. It plans to buildthe first power plant by 2034
Type One Energy uses an enhanced version of a 1957 experimental Stellarator invented by US scientist Lyman Spitzer. The co-founders of Type One Energy built the world’s first optimized stellarator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1990s and conducted foundational stellarator research on it in the early 2000s. Using non-planar, high temperature superconducting magnets to optimize plasma flow, Type One Energy can surpass all fundamental technical barriers to achieving fusion energy at commercial scale. The company is building Infinity One prototype together with the 400 MWe Infinity Two fusion power plant. It plans to buildthe first power plant by 2034
8
Funding: $337.8M
Zap Energy intends to build commercial fusion reactor that does not employ magnets, cryogenics or high-powered lasers. This technology is known as sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch. It's an electromagnetic phenomenon where electric currents create magnetic fields so powerful that they compress matter. Zap's reactor uses electrodes to send electricity through deuterium/tritium plasma, which causes the plasma to generate a magnetic field. When the temperature reaches millions of degrees Fahrenheit and magnetic field is strong enough (gigapascals) - the plasma is compressed to the point where particles fuse (and began to generate more energy than consume). The company has set the world record of the resulting pressure/heat (though there is also third quality parameter - duration)
Zap Energy intends to build commercial fusion reactor that does not employ magnets, cryogenics or high-powered lasers. This technology is known as sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch. It's an electromagnetic phenomenon where electric currents create magnetic fields so powerful that they compress matter. Zap's reactor uses electrodes to send electricity through deuterium/tritium plasma, which causes the plasma to generate a magnetic field. When the temperature reaches millions of degrees Fahrenheit and magnetic field is strong enough (gigapascals) - the plasma is compressed to the point where particles fuse (and began to generate more energy than consume). The company has set the world record of the resulting pressure/heat (though there is also third quality parameter - duration)
9
Funding: $140M
Thea Energy is developing pixel-inspired Helios fusion reactor that will offer a lower cost than competitors. It's a stellarator - a special type of reactor that uses magnets to shape plasma fuel into the desired shape. These magnets are small, identical superconducting magnets, allowing for mass production. The startup will use software to individually control each magnet to generate magnetic fields that can replicate the stellarator's unstable shape. This approach allows rapid optimization of the magnet design. Helios is projected to generate 390 megawatts of electricity at a cost of under $150 per megawatt-hour. Production is scheduled to start around 2030.
Thea Energy is developing pixel-inspired Helios fusion reactor that will offer a lower cost than competitors. It's a stellarator - a special type of reactor that uses magnets to shape plasma fuel into the desired shape. These magnets are small, identical superconducting magnets, allowing for mass production. The startup will use software to individually control each magnet to generate magnetic fields that can replicate the stellarator's unstable shape. This approach allows rapid optimization of the magnet design. Helios is projected to generate 390 megawatts of electricity at a cost of under $150 per megawatt-hour. Production is scheduled to start around 2030.
10
Funding: $117.8M
Xcimer develops laser system Phoenix – the largest privately owned laser system in the world and the company’s prototype for commercializing laser fusion. Housed in Xcimer’s 74,000-square-foot Denver laser facility, Phoenix is a proof of concept for an unconventional fusion architecture: a krypton fluoride (KrF) excimer laser using Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) to compress a microsecond-long pulse into the nanosecond timescales fusion requires. Phoenix is designed to demonstrate end-to-end integrated operation of excimer amplification and SBS pulse compression.
Xcimer develops laser system Phoenix – the largest privately owned laser system in the world and the company’s prototype for commercializing laser fusion. Housed in Xcimer’s 74,000-square-foot Denver laser facility, Phoenix is a proof of concept for an unconventional fusion architecture: a krypton fluoride (KrF) excimer laser using Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) to compress a microsecond-long pulse into the nanosecond timescales fusion requires. Phoenix is designed to demonstrate end-to-end integrated operation of excimer amplification and SBS pulse compression.
11
Funding: $84M
Avalanche is a fusion energy startup that, unlike its competitors, is trying to create a miniature version of the fusion reactor. Their reactor is only 9 centimeters in diameter (the new version will increase to 25 centimeters and is expected to produce around 1 megawatt). The smaller size allowes Avalanche to speed up the process. The company tests modifications to its devices "sometimes twice a week," which would be difficult and expensive with a larger device. To confine the plasma, Avalanche's reactor uses an extremely high-voltage electric current to attract plasma particles into orbit around an electrode. It also uses magnets to maintain order, although they are nowhere near as powerful as those in a tokamak. As the orbit narrows and the plasma speed increases, the particles begin to collide with each other and fuse.
Avalanche is a fusion energy startup that, unlike its competitors, is trying to create a miniature version of the fusion reactor. Their reactor is only 9 centimeters in diameter (the new version will increase to 25 centimeters and is expected to produce around 1 megawatt). The smaller size allowes Avalanche to speed up the process. The company tests modifications to its devices "sometimes twice a week," which would be difficult and expensive with a larger device. To confine the plasma, Avalanche's reactor uses an extremely high-voltage electric current to attract plasma particles into orbit around an electrode. It also uses magnets to maintain order, although they are nowhere near as powerful as those in a tokamak. As the orbit narrows and the plasma speed increases, the particles begin to collide with each other and fuse.
12
Funding: $57.5M
Realta Fusion develops fusion energy technology for the production of industrial heat and power. Its magnetic mirror confines a plasma between two high field superconducting magnets. The strong magnetic fields cause charged, energetic particles to bounce back and forth, also known as the mirror effect. The technology uses ion and electron RF heating with high energy neutral particle injection to optimize plasma performance. The startup was the first to successfully power a light bulb using the WHAM demonstration fusion reactor. The power converter is installed at the end of the reactor and generates up to several amperes of electricity at 100 volts.
Realta Fusion develops fusion energy technology for the production of industrial heat and power. Its magnetic mirror confines a plasma between two high field superconducting magnets. The strong magnetic fields cause charged, energetic particles to bounce back and forth, also known as the mirror effect. The technology uses ion and electron RF heating with high energy neutral particle injection to optimize plasma performance. The startup was the first to successfully power a light bulb using the WHAM demonstration fusion reactor. The power converter is installed at the end of the reactor and generates up to several amperes of electricity at 100 volts.
13
Funding: $10M
LPPFusion develops Focus Fusion generator, based on the Dense Plasma Focus device and the aneutronic, hydrogen-boron (pB11) fuel. The core of the device are electrodes which “focus” the filaments from within the plasma in the chamber into a single point, called plasmoid, where fusion reactions take place. So far, the startup has been experimenting with experimental gases only which give lower fusion energy output yield. Once it develops the higher voltage switch technology, needed to ignite the fusion reactions, it will start experimenting with the ultimate high density nuclear pB11 fuel which will produce much higher fusion energy yield.
LPPFusion develops Focus Fusion generator, based on the Dense Plasma Focus device and the aneutronic, hydrogen-boron (pB11) fuel. The core of the device are electrodes which “focus” the filaments from within the plasma in the chamber into a single point, called plasmoid, where fusion reactions take place. So far, the startup has been experimenting with experimental gases only which give lower fusion energy output yield. Once it develops the higher voltage switch technology, needed to ignite the fusion reactions, it will start experimenting with the ultimate high density nuclear pB11 fuel which will produce much higher fusion energy yield.
14
Funding: $6.9M
Marathon Fusion designs, engineers and scales next-generation technologies to enable the deployment of fusion power plants. In deuterium-tritium fusion, high-energy neutrons drive "multiplication" reactions to close the fuel cycle by producing the tritium needed to sustain operation. Making use of those neutrons to drive a multiplication reaction on mercury-198, startup's approach produces mercury-197 which then decays in a few days to the only stable isotope of gold. Using Marathon's approach, power plants can generate five thousand kilograms of "gold" per year, per gigawatt of electricity generation.
Marathon Fusion designs, engineers and scales next-generation technologies to enable the deployment of fusion power plants. In deuterium-tritium fusion, high-energy neutrons drive "multiplication" reactions to close the fuel cycle by producing the tritium needed to sustain operation. Making use of those neutrons to drive a multiplication reaction on mercury-198, startup's approach produces mercury-197 which then decays in a few days to the only stable isotope of gold. Using Marathon's approach, power plants can generate five thousand kilograms of "gold" per year, per gigawatt of electricity generation.
15
Funding: $3.6M
ExoFusion is developing Super-XT - divertor for toroidal fusion devices, which can increase plasma confinement and address the most pressing challenge - heat dissipation and material erosion. Super-XT maintains very high plasma temperatures at the plasma-material interface and uses magnetic fields to dissipate waste heat. ExoFusion is also developing new liquid metals that enable the creation of new and improved solutions for the plasma-material interface problem and compact high-volume fusion neutron source. The company's business model includes the sale or licensing of patents and the provision of modeling, testing and other support for fusion technology design.
ExoFusion is developing Super-XT - divertor for toroidal fusion devices, which can increase plasma confinement and address the most pressing challenge - heat dissipation and material erosion. Super-XT maintains very high plasma temperatures at the plasma-material interface and uses magnetic fields to dissipate waste heat. ExoFusion is also developing new liquid metals that enable the creation of new and improved solutions for the plasma-material interface problem and compact high-volume fusion neutron source. The company's business model includes the sale or licensing of patents and the provision of modeling, testing and other support for fusion technology design.
16
Funding: $390K
NearStar Fusion is developing a new pulsed approach to create fusion called Hypervelocity Gradient Field Fusion (HGFF) which builds on a successful method of imploding metallic liners (Z machine) combined with a repeatable theta pinch process developed under a NASA Innovative Advanced Concept study.
NearStar Fusion is developing a new pulsed approach to create fusion called Hypervelocity Gradient Field Fusion (HGFF) which builds on a successful method of imploding metallic liners (Z machine) combined with a repeatable theta pinch process developed under a NASA Innovative Advanced Concept study.
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