Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced it has closed on more than $1.8 billion in Series B funding to commercialize fusion energy. This money will be used construct, commission, and operate SPARC, the world’s first commercially relevant net energy fusion machine. They will also start work on ARC, the first commercial fusion power plant, which includes developing support technologies, advancing the design, identifying the site, and assembling the partners and customers for the future of fusion power.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has the fastest, lowest cost path to commercial fusion energy. CFS is collaborating with MIT to leverage decades of research combined with new groundbreaking high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet technology. HTS magnets will enable compact fusion power plants that can be constructed faster and at lower cost. The mission is to deploy fusion power plants to meet global decarbonization goals as fast as possible.
The main plan is to use high power superconducting magnets built at lower cost. CFS has built a 20 tesla, large-bore magnet and which it demonstrated in 2021. These high field magnets are the largest of their kind in the world by a factor of 100-1000 in magnet performance. They open a widely identified transformational opportunity for commercial fusion energy. HTS magnets will be used to enable SPARC, the world’s first net energy from fusion device, and then ARC, the first fusion power plant. They also could have alternative applications that include wind turbines, MRI machines, and transportation.
The round was led by Tiger Global Management. Other investors are
Bill Gates;
Coatue;
DFJ Growth;
Emerson Collective;
Footprint Coalition;
Google;
JIMCO Technology Fund, part of JIMCO,
the Jameel Family’s global investment arm;
John Doerr;
JS Capital;
Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures;
Senator Investment Group; a major university endowment; and a pension plan.
Current investors already included Breakthrough Energy Ventures; The Engine; Eni; Equinor Ventures; Fine Structure Ventures; Future Ventures; Hostplus; Khosla Ventures; Lowercarbon; Moore Strategic Ventures; Safar Partners; Schooner Capital; Soros Fund Management LLC; Starlight Ventures; Temasek; and others committed to the commercialization of fusion energy to mitigate climate change.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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