Who Is Investing in Fusion Energy Development Today? You Might be Surprised…
One of the areas that we have focused on in The Fusion Report on a quarterly basis is which companies in the fusion energy industry are being invested in. For instance, the investment in fusion energy to date is over $7.1 billion (and most of it into US fusion energy companies), according to the Fusion Industry Association. What we haven’t covered before (and it is an interesting topic, to be sure) is who is investing in fusion energy development, which is the focus of today’s article.
What Kind of Venture Capitalists Invest in Fusion Energy?
The investing of “standard” venture capital (VCs) investors is typically driven by the lifetime of their investment funds, which tends to be seven years. These VCs look to have their investments turn a profit within the lifetime of the fund, generally within five (5) years. For something like fusion energy, this timeframe doesn’t work, at least with where fusion is at today. If fusion energy really first “plugs into the grid” in the mid-2030s, that is ten years from today, and almost fourteen years from Commonwealth Fusion System’s (CFS) B round of November 2021, and sixteen years from their A round of funding in 2019, both of which are outside the standard VC investment profile.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems Series B Funding Round
So let’s look at who invested in the CFS B round of $1.8 billion, the biggest fusion
energy fundraising round so far. The lead investors were Bill Gates, Coatue, DFJ Growth, Emerson Collective, Footprint Coalition, Google, JIMCO Technology Fund, John Doerr, JS Capital, Time Ventures, and Senator Investment Group. These were joined by existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, The Engine, ENI, Equitor Ventures, Fine Structure Ventures, Future Ventures, Hostplus, Khosla Ventures, Lowercarbon, and a number of other companies. Some of the new investors already invest in long-term projects with “world-changing” impacts:
- Bill Gates: Once the world’s richest man, Gates has focused his investing in companies that have long-term growth potential and a global impact; essentially, companies that will change the map, even if over long time periods.
- John Doerr: The chairman of Kleiner Perkins, Doerr has made early investments in a number of game-changing technology companies such as Google, Amazon, and Twitter. He has invested in companies pushing sustainability and mitigating climate change; things that fusion energy also strives for.
- Coatue: A “lifecycle investment” company focused on investing in companies that are “turning big ideas into world-shaping technology”, including AI, “rebooting manufacturing in the US”, platforms like InstaCart, and jetpack.io.
- Time Ventures: Time is owned by Mark Benioff (founder of Salesforce.com), and invests in information technology, the internet, infrastructure, and space tech.
- Emerson Collective: The fund specializes in investments that are “big swings, with humility and hustle” – entrepreneurs with talent that take on audacious ideas that can improve the likelihood of a flourishing humanity.
- FootPrint Coalition: The company focuses on climate tech investments, and is owned by Robert Downey, Jr. (yes, “Ironman”).
Now, it would be incorrect to state that there were no “regular” VC investments in the CFS B-round – there were some of those, too. It would also be incorrect to say that favorable economic conditions didn’t help as well – the lower interest rates are, the more money flows into VC firms. That said, a large number of the companies that did invest in the CFS B-Round were socially-minded companies looking to make a long-term impact, and were often funded by very high-wealth individuals.
Fusion Energy Investments Going Forward
It is pretty clear that 2025 is not a great investment year for fusion energy (or for venture capital in general). With the uncertainty around Trump Administration #2, a historically high (at least since 2010) Fed Fund rate of 4.25%-4.5%, and a US energy policy favoring fossil fuels but more so, not investing much in the way of government funds at all, it is clear that 2025 will not be like 2021. Even with that said, there have been several large funding rounds in the first half of 2025, including:
- Helion Energy: $425 million series F round
- TAE Technology: $150 million
- Proxima Fusion: €130 million (approximately $150 million) series A round
- Realta Fusion: $36 million series A round
- Marvel Fusion: €53 million series B round
- Renaissance Fusion: €32 million series A1 round
This is approaching the entirety of the amount that was invested in 2024 (also not a great year for either fusion energy or venture capital in general). So while 2025 probably isn’t going to be another “2021”, it will likely show growth over last year as the economy sorts itself out. For more meat, look for our upcoming Fusion Energy Investor Brief on Thursday June 26th. Thanks again!
