Google Invests in Proxima Fusion, Europe Chase the First Commercial Fusion Plant

Google's logo is seen at one of the company's offices. Google is funding Proxima Fusion, a German nuclear fusion startup that aims to build Europe's first commercial fusion power plant. Photo: Pexels.

Google has joined the funding round of 411 million euros or around 470 million US dollars for Proxima Fusion. The German nuclear fusion startup is targeting the construction of the first commercial fusion power plant in Europe.

Anadolu Agency, quoted Tuesday, July 7, reported that the funding raised Proxima Fusion's valuation to 2.4 billion euros or around 2.7 billion US dollars. With that value, the Munich-based company became the largest funded fusion company in Europe.

This round of funding was led by XTX Ventures and East X Ventures. German energy company RWE and Google also joined as strategic investors. KfW Capital, SPRIND, and Burda Principal Investments also joined along with a number of old investors, including Plural, UVC Partners, Balderton, and Cherry Ventures.

Proxima said Google's investment showed the tech company's interest in fusion as a long-term energy source. Fusion is seen as abundant, carbon-free, and stable energy.

Fusion is the process of combining light atoms, usually hydrogen isotopes, to produce energy. This is different from the existing nuclear power plants, which use fission or splitting of atoms. Until now, fusion has not been used commercially for power generation.

Proxima is developing stellarator fusion technology. A stellarator is a device that uses a magnetic field to hold very hot plasma so that the fusion reaction can take place.

The company plans to build Alpha, a fusion demonstrator with net energy output, near Munich in the early 2030s. In the context of fusion, net energy output means that a device is able to generate more energy than the energy used to ignite the fusion process.

Alpha is being prepared as a link between fusion research that has been running for decades and commercial applications. After that, Proxima is preparing Stellaris, a commercial fusion-based power plant that is planned to be available by the end of the decade.

"Europe is racing with the United States and China to achieve the first fusion power plant," said Proxima co-founder and CEO Francesco Sciortino in a statement.

According to Sciortino, this funding shows that Europe is not only able to find breakthrough technologies, but also build companies that can compete globally.

"Proxima funding shows that Europe can not only find breakthrough technologies, but also build globally competitive companies around them," he said.

Anadolu Agency said Proxima said the new funds would be used to complete the Stellarator Model Coil. Funds are also used to expand the production of high-temperature superconducting cables and magnets, as well as developing the engineering and manufacturing systems needed for stellarators.

The company will also accelerate recruitment in the fields of engineering, manufacturing, and operations. The recruitment is carried out because Proxima wants to strengthen its engineering, production, and operations capabilities within its own company.

RWE entered as an investor a few months after signing an agreement with Proxima, the State of Bavaria, and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. The cooperation supports the development of the first stellarator fusion power plant at the site of a former nuclear fission power plant in Gundremmingen, Bavaria.

Proxima is a spin-out company from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. In less than three years, the company claims to have secured funding of more than 650 million euros, including a public grant of 95 million euros.