General Fusion, a fusion power startup, will go public through a reverse merger worth $1B as it seeks new funding and aims for a reactor breakthrough.
Vancouver: General Fusion is a company trying to create fusion power. Last year, it had a hard time getting money. They even had to lay off 25% of their workers. Luckily, they got a $22 million investment to help them stay in business.
Today, General Fusion announced that it will go public. They will do this through a reverse merger with a company called Spring Valley III. This means they can get more money from other investors. The merger could raise up to $335 million, more than twice what they needed last year.
This deal will make the new company worth about $1 billion. General Fusion has been around since 2002 and has raised over $440 million so far. They want to use the money to finish building a special reactor called Lawson Machine 26, or LM26. This machine uses a process called “magnetized target fusion” to create energy by fusing atoms together.
Unlike other fusion reactors that use lasers, LM26 uses pistons to compress the fuel. This way, it can create energy without costly lasers. The company hopes to make fusion power cheaper this way, but they still need to prove their method works.
Last year, General Fusion said they would reach an important goal called scientific breakeven by 2026. This is when the machine creates more energy than needed to run it. However, they now plan to reach this goal by 2028. The merger company, Spring Valley, has experience with energy companies. They also took a nuclear reactor company public before.
Other fusion companies have gone public too. For instance, TAE Technologies announced a merger last December worth over $6 billion. A common factor in these deals is the rising need for energy, especially from data centers. General Fusion points out that energy demand is expected to grow in the coming years. If they can deliver affordable fusion power, they could find many buyers.