$1 billion raise brings total fundraising by CFS to $4 billion
US-based nuclear fusion company Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has raised $1bn (€873m) of additional equity financing – the single largest funding round among fusion energy companies worldwide since CFS announced its $1.8bn Series B round in 2021.
With this capital, and the $863m the company raised last year, CFS has now raised a total of $4bn, representing about 30% of the total capital raised by the fusion industry to date.
The Massachusetts company, founded in 2018 after a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said investors include significant institutional investors such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and infrastructure and industrial corporate partners.
CFS said it will use the funds to accelerate its progress to commercialisation. In parallel to completing the assembly of its Sparc fusion demonstration machine, CFS said it continues to move forward with development of the world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant, called Arc, at the company’s Fall Line Fusion Power Station in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
The 400-MW Arc plant is expected to come online in the early 2030s.
Earlier this year CFS applied to grid operator PJM Interconnection for grid connection for the Fall Line fusion plant.
The company said the application, submitted to PJM Interconnection, marks the first time a fusion power plant developer has requested to join a major grid operator.
CFS is working on its Sparc prototype fusion machine at its headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts. Sparc, which will pave the way for the commercial Arc unit, is a compact, high-field, net fusion energy device that would be the size of existing mid-sized fusion devices, but with a much stronger magnetic field. It is predicted to produce 50-100 MW of fusion power.
Sparc is expected to produce its first plasma in 2026 and net fusion energy shortly after, demonstrating for the first time a design that will produce more power than consumed.
Technology giant Google has already agreed to buy power from the Fall Line plant. The 400-MW Arc could be the world's first grid-scale fusion power plant, CFS has said.
