Frankie Berry

Things You Gotta Know Focused Energy Closes Record $240 Million Series A to Build Germany’s First Laser Fusion Power Plant Focused Energy announced on May 27 that it has raised $240 million in...

The Fusion Report sized up where battery energy storage technology is headed and asked whether the next generation of AI-powered robots will run on fusion. The NRC is moving toward a substantially lighter federal review of fusion, Germany joined the EU’s IPCEI on innovative nuclear technologies for fusion only, Singapore’s A*STAR signed a five-year research pact with CFS, Canada backed a fusion-based copper-67 isotope production project, General Fusion brought on capital markets veteran Thomas Boehlert as it prepares for the public markets, and JT-60SA cleared its upgrade cycle and prepared for restart.

Thea Energy operated its first full-scale stellarator shaping coil, and The Fusion Report dug into whether $50/MWh is really the bar for commercial fusion in the US. Fusion lands on China’s 15th Five-Year Plan as a frontier priority, ITER explains how fusion is pushing AI to evolve, Xcimer Energy keeps stacking senior hires, and Stellarex Energy and TAE Technologies both add new joint work with UKAEA.

This week’s fusion briefing covers Zap Energy’s new CEO and pivot to integrated fission-fusion, Commonwealth Fusion’s first-ever PJM interconnection filing, a joint CEO letter pressing Brussels for a coordinated fusion strategy, a new commentary on the $50/MWh cost bar, and nT-Tao’s MoU with Israel’s national water company to explore fusion-powered desalination.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems CEO Bob Mumgaard pegged SPARC’s turn-on to 2027 and teed up construction of the company’s 400 MW Virginia commercial plant to begin immediately after, in a Reuters NEXT interview. The UK Atomic Energy Authority took a strategic position in First Light Fusion’s £25 million first close, and General Fusion scheduled its April 29 Analyst Day at the Nasdaq MarketSite as its proposed $1 billion SVAC combination nears close. Peak Nano and E&P Technologies co-authored a piece on how impedance-matched generators are reshaping the capacitor stack behind inertial confinement fusion.

The UK cemented its bid for fusion leadership this week with a £1.3 billion National Fusion Energy Strategy and a £70 million STEP magnet contract awarded to Tokamak Energy. General Fusion named Ontario Power Generation Board Chair Wendy Kei to its Board as it prepares for a Nasdaq listing, and Inertia Enterprises signed a trio of R&D agreements with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to commercialize inertial fusion. The Fusion Report also covers highlights from the 2026 ARPA-E Innovation Summit and Part 3 of the Fusion Decathlon, Mike Heumann’s deep dive into magnetic fusion energy solutions.

A wave of federal funding headlines this week’s fusion news, with ARPA-E committing $135 million and SHINE securing a $263 million conditional DOE loan. TAE Technologies is scouting sites for its first power plant, Pulsar Fusion hit a propulsion milestone, and CSIS is sounding the alarm on China’s fusion push.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Realta Fusion announced a long-term strategic partnership on HTS magnets covering demonstration prototypes through commercial power plants. Physics Today profiles stellarators as leading fusion contenders. Siemens Energy deepens its industrial role across the fusion sector. nT-Tao shares Q1 progress including C3 first plasma. And New Mexico adds fusion to its state clean energy tax credit.