It is that time of the year again when we at The Fusion Report focus on the current state of fundraising for fusion energy. For those of you who have previous experience with examining the state of fusion energy fundraising, you know that coming up with a single number is a difficult process. We will provide you the information that we have and split out China from the rest of the world because of the lack of transparency there. So, let’s get started…

How Much Funding Has Fusion Energy Raised In Private Capital?

This is where the fun starts. Because different news sources include different types of money (venture capital funding, private equity, government awards, etc.) in their totals. Moreover, the sources often do not break out the different types of funding or where they got the numbers from. Finally, these numbers when including Chinese private sector estimates can vary wildly. Hence my saying, “This is where the fun starts”.

One of the better sources of fusion funding estimates is the Fusion Industry Association (FIA), It faces its figures on the poll of its 53 member companies. According to its July 2025 report, the fusion energy industry raised $2.64 billion in private and public funding Between July 2024 and June 2025, for a total investment of roughly $9.766 billion US. Following this July 2025 report, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) raised an $863M Series C2 round in August 2025, coincident with a raise of $22 million by General Fusion, $15 million by Japan’s Helical Fusion, and $60 million by Kyoto Fusioneering (also of Japan). This increased the total raised by the end of 2025 to roughly $10.7 billion US.

Not to be outdone, China is believed to have raised at least $6.5 billion for commercial fusion projects since early 2023, according to the US-based Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP). If accurate (and many believe that these figures are conservative in the case of China), that would mean that the world has spent over $17 billion on private fusion efforts, with most of it since 2020. Additionally, China's commercial projects (like those of the US and other western countries) do not include expenditures on government facilities, which in China's case are large and are across several projects including magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) machines.

And although we're less than two months in, 2026 promises to be a good year for fusion fundraising, at least based on the early results. Newcomer Inertia Enterprises raised $450 million for laser-based ICF fusion, indicating that it is not too late for new companies to enter the fray. SHINE Technologies also just announced a new $240M raise; this makes a total $1.04 billion, eclipsing Pacific Fusion at $900 million and just passing Helion at $1.037 billion to put SHINE at The #3 fusion company by private capital raised. Additionally, Type One Energy raised $87 million for a total of over $160 million, while Avalanche, maker of micro-sized fusion machines, raised $29 million in new funds. Finally, Proxima Fusion has just announced a memorandum of understanding to fund a €2 billion fusion plant power plant in Bavaria, though funding has yet to be finalized.

How Much More Money Does Fusion Energy Need?

The reality is that it takes large sums of money to successfully commercialize fusion energy, something that no one has done yet (though there are several companies that are close). Of the 53 companies that are members of the FIA, only three of them have raised over a billion dollars: CFS, TAE (now public through a SPAC), and Helion, though Pacific Fusion and Shine are close with $900 million and $800 million (respectively). British Columbia based General Fusion, which previously raised $469 million before entering a SPAC of its own, is now valued at approximately $1 billion also. Another nine companies have investments of over $100 million each (Inertia, Tokamak Energy, Zap Energy, Proxima Fusion, Focused Energy, Marvel Fusion, Type One Energy, First Light, Avalanche, and Xcimer).​

Of the above companies, several are now building their initial power plants based on their designs (Helion’s Malaga, WA site is pictured here). However, anyone embarking on more than a first-of-a-kind fusion energy plant is going to need to raise significant capital, probably on the order of billions of dollars per plant. This will likely be a combination of commercial funds, commercial debt and construction debt. This is a different funding game than most of the fusion energy companies are used to. While this is large lift, there are several companies (Fluor, Bechtel, AECOM, KBR, Jacobs Solutions, Worley, and other nuclear fission companies, for example) that are highly experienced in building and commissioning complex power plants. That part is the easy part of the equation…