Every fusion startup that has raised over $100M

Over the last few years, fusion power has leapt from punchline to serious contender, with a growing roster of startups now having raised more than 100 million dollars each to chase the promise of star‑like energy on Earth. This new wave of capital, anchored by advances in AI, high‑temperature superconducting magnets and better simulation hardware, has turned fusion into one of the most closely watched deep‑tech stories heading into 2026.​

Why the $100M club matters

Fusion’s appeal remains simple: if commercial plants work, they could deliver vast amounts of firm, carbon‑free power and upend trillion‑dollar fossil and grid markets. The field’s momentum accelerated after a 2022 U.S. experiment hit “scientific breakeven,” showing a controlled fusion reaction could yield more energy than the lasers used to spark it, even if full‑facility breakeven is still years away.​

At the same time, better chips, more capable AI models and high‑temperature superconducting magnets are enabling far more sophisticated reactor designs and control schemes than were possible even a decade ago. That technical backdrop has helped convince institutional investors, corporate strategics and sovereign funds that fusion is no longer purely a science project.​

Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has emerged as the financial heavyweight of private fusion, capturing roughly a third of all private capital raised in the sector so far. Its latest round, an 863 million dollar Series B2 that closed in August 2025, pushed total funding to nearly 3 billion dollars.​

The Massachusetts‑based startup is racing to complete Sparc, a compact tokamak whose doughnut‑shaped reactor is wrapped in high‑temperature superconducting tape to generate the intense magnetic fields needed to confine superheated plasma. CFS expects Sparc to switch on in late 2026 or early 2027, and plans to follow with Arc, a 400‑megawatt commercial plant in Virginia where Google has already agreed to buy half the output.​​

TAE Technologies and Helion

TAE Technologies, founded in 1998, is one of fusion’s veterans and now one of its best‑funded players. Using a beam‑driven field‑reversed configuration (FRC) that keeps plasma spinning in a cigar shape for longer, the company has raised about 1.79 billion dollars to date and in December 2025 announced an all‑stock merger with President Donald Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group that values the combined entity at 6 billion dollars.​

Helion, based in Everett, Washington, is moving on one of the sector’s most aggressive timelines. Its FRC‑based design aims to deliver electricity directly from the reactor’s changing magnetic field, and the startup plans to supply its first power to Microsoft in 2028 after switching on its Polaris prototype and pushing total capital raised to just over 1.03 billion dollars with a 425 million dollar round in early 2025.​​

General Fusion, Tokamak Energy and Zap

In Canada, General Fusion is pursuing magnetized target fusion, using pistons to squeeze a liquid‑metal wall around injected plasma to trigger fusion and then harvest heat from the metal to run a turbine. After a turbulent 2025 that saw layoffs and emergency financings, the company’s total capital raised has climbed to about 492 million dollars, according to recent filings and investor disclosures.​

U.K. startup Tokamak Energy is betting on a smaller, spherical twist of the classic tokamak, using REBCO high‑temperature superconducting magnets in a compact configuration that has already produced a 100‑million‑degree plasma in its ST40 device. Backed by investors including Future Planet Capital and In‑Q‑Tel, it has raised around 336 million dollars in total, including a 125 million dollar round in late 2024 to fund its Demo 4 machine and magnet business.​

Everett‑based Zap Energy is taking a different route, confining plasma using the magnetic field generated by an intense electric current rather than large external magnets or lasers. The company has secured about 327 million dollars from backers such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures to push its sheared‑flow Z‑pinch concept toward plant‑scale devices.​

The new wave: Pacific Fusion, Shine and others

Pacific Fusion has turned heads with a 900 million dollar Series A that places it among the sector’s best‑capitalized newcomers. Instead of lasers, the startup’s inertial‑confinement design uses 156 precisely timed electromagnetic pulse generators to deliver 2 terawatts over 100 nanoseconds, a level of synchronization closer to chipmaking than traditional power engineering.​

Shine Technologies is taking a more incremental path, using its fusion know‑how first to sell neutron services, medical isotopes and waste‑recycling solutions while keeping options open on its eventual reactor design. That strategy has still attracted 778 million dollars in funding from investors including Koch Disruptive Technologies and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.​

Alongside them, a diverse slate of companies , from stellarator specialist Proxima Fusion, which has raised more than 185 million euros, to component supplier Kyoto Fusioneering with 191 million dollars, and inertial‑fusion players Marvel Fusion, First Light Fusion and Xcimer have all crossed the 100‑million‑dollar threshold as investors spread bets across competing physics pathways. Together, they illustrate how fusion has shifted from a single long‑shot bet to an emerging ecosystem racing to turn laboratory breakthroughs into grid‑scale power.