Google has invested in Germany-based Proxima Fusion as part of a €411 million funding round to build Europe's first commercial nuclear fusion power plant. While acknowledging fusion's potential, Google cautioned about the challenges of commercialization.
Fusion theorist Xie Huasheng founded VeloAlpha to develop FusionAlpha, a simulation software designed to reduce the cost and trial-and-error cycle in fusion energy development by improving computational accuracy and efficiency.
Germany is investing heavily in fusion energy, viewing it as a key future technology to ensure energy security and independence. The country is backing both magnetic and laser-driven fusion approaches, aiming to become a leader in the global race for the first fusion power plant.
Fusion energy has been “20 years away” for decades, but has the science finally caught up? Private investment in fusion companies surged from $10 billion to $15 billion in just months, and the money is coming from places you wouldn’t expect.  Watch as Rebecca Bellan and guest host Tim De Chant sit down with Rachel Slaybaugh, general partner at DCVC on this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. The trio breaks […]
Proxima Fusion, a Munich-based startup, has secured €400m (£340m) in state funding from Bavaria to build Alpha, a stellarator nuclear fusion device. The company is pursuing the more complex stellarator approach, which uses twisted magnetic coils to control plasma, competing against the more common tokamak design. Proxima is also bidding for over $1bn in federal funding, with a decision expected next year. The goal is to produce more energy than consumed and eventually create a fusion power plant called Stellaris.
Proxima Fusion, a Munich-based nuclear fusion startup, is developing a stellarator called Alpha based on Germany's Max Planck Institute's W7-X design. The company has secured €400m from Bavaria and is seeking over $1bn in federal funding. Unlike tokamaks, stellarators use twisted magnetic coils to control plasma more easily but are harder to build. Proxima faces competition from 53 other fusion projects worldwide, including the UK's Step spherical tokamak project in Yorkshire.
Fusion startups and investors risk deepening fissures if some key disagreements aren't settled amicably.
The laser was used to study the physics of stellar interiors and fusion energy, among other things.
