General Fusion Secures US$22M to Advance Quest for Commercial Fusion Power

General Fusion, a Canadian startup, secured US$22 million (C$30 million) in financing to fuel its plans to produce commercially viable fusion power.

The round was a “pay-to-play” deal in which existing investors were required to participate to maintain their ownership stakes. As part of the deal, Segra Capital Chief Investment Officer Adam Rodman and PenderFund Chair Kelly Edmison will be joining General Fusion’s board of directors.

The BC-based startup was founded by physicist Michel Laberge to develop a commercially viable method to generating zero-carbon fusion power to address global demands for clean energy. Earlier this year, the company achieved a major milestone as it activated the Lawson Machine 26 (“LM26”), a half-scale prototype of a commercial scale reactor. The new funding will accelerate LM26 operations and help the company reach its next technical milestone — demonstrating fusion at temperatures of 10 million degrees Celsius.

After it hits this short-term goal, General Fusion aims to reach the 100 million-degree mark and eventually achieve the key milestone of “scientific breakeven.” This is the point at which the LM26 demonstration device is able to produce the same amount of energy it consumes. While reaching the scientific breakeven stage is crucial to proving the viability of the reactor design, to create commercially viable fusion power, the company will also need to achieve “commercial breakeven.” This is when a fusion reaction produces more power than the entire facility consumes. However, no one has reached this milestone yet.

General Fusion has differentiated itself from its competitors by using the Magnetized Target Fusion (“MTF”) technique. The company’s MTF reactor design uses steam-driven pistons and mechanical compression to create fusion at short pulses, removing the need for expensive lasers or superconducting magnets.

This latest round of financing provides a vote of confidence in General Fusion’s technology and mission. The company hopes to deliver commercial fusion power by the mid-2030s.