Helion Raises $465 million in Latest Funding Round
Helion Energy closed a $465 million Series G led by Thrive Capital at a $15.5 billion post-money valuation, the largest fusion VC round of 2026. The raise brings Helion’s lifetime private funding to $1.5 billion and makes it the second most funded fusion company after Commonwealth Fusion Systems. The capital will expand U.S. manufacturing capacity and support deployment of Orion, the company’s first power plant, now under construction in Malaga, Washington.
Top Fusion Companies by Funding
The Fusion Report’s running ranking of private fusion energy companies by total disclosed funding. Helion Energy moves to the #2 position with $1.5 billion in total funding, bringing the tracker to $11.4 billion across 24 companies. The current list includes full investor details and website links for every company. Refreshed June 5, 2026.
Xcimer Energy Announces the Start of Operations for Its Phoenix Laser System Facility
Xcimer Energy has started operations at Phoenix, a krypton fluoride excimer laser system in Denver and the prototype for its commercial laser fusion architecture. Phoenix uses Stimulated Brillouin Scattering to compress a microsecond-long pulse into the nanosecond timescales fusion requires and runs on two beamlines rather than the 192 at the National Ignition Facility. Building it required Xcimer to rebuild large-scale excimer laser capabilities the United States had largely abandoned after the Cold War. The system is the proof of concept behind a roadmap that runs through Anvil and Vulcan toward Athena, a commercial fusion power plant targeted for the mid-2030s.
Is ITER Even Relevant Anymore?
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is the largest and most expensive fusion machine ever built, with a projected cost of between $20B and $24B and final-stage completion now pushed out to 2039. Meanwhile, commercial machines like Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ ARC are expected to deliver 400 MW of electricity in the early 2030s at a fraction of ITER’s price. The Fusion Report traces ITER’s four decades of international cooperation and schedule slips, compares its progress against NIF’s ignition milestones and EAST’s long-pulse records, and weighs what ITER can still uniquely deliver. The verdict: ITER’s value may now rest on being an insurance policy, one that only pays off if commercial fusion slips.
