The German-based fusion company, Proxima Fusion, has just raised 411 million euros in its latest financing round. Among the companies backing it this time were Google and the energy firm RWE. Google invested due to its continued interest in fusion as a source of clean energy in the long term.
Nuclear fusion energy, while having been discussed for a long time as a source of energy, has so far not materialized as a commercially viable product. Proxima Fusion says it is working on a net-energy fusion demonstrator called Alpha, which it is planning to have ready for the early 2030s.
Commenting on the development, Dr Francesco Sciortino, Co-Founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion, said:
“Europe is racing with the United States and China to get to the first fusion power plant. Proxima’s financing demonstrates that Europe can not only invent breakthrough technologies, but also build globally competitive companies around them. Investors recognise both the urgency and the opportunity of what we"re doing and are backing us to develop a generational energy technology company.”
It said that the financing received from Google and RWE will help it to build Alpha. It is working with the state of Bavaria, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, and RWE to develop this prototype. It also said that this marks one of the largest private investments in European technology this year and the largest ever in European fusion.
The development of fusion power should also help with progress in artificial intelligence, which is demanding more and more energy. For the EU and the UK in particular, the development of fusion could also help them with their energy independence after prices rocketed in recent years due to the war in Ukraine.