Pacific Fusion - Big Names and $900M Round A
Pacific Fusion has sent a seismic ripple through the fusion world with a monumental $900 million Series A funding round. This substantial investment underscores the increasing recognition of fusion's potential to revolutionize the global energy landscape and sets the stage for 2024 to be a record year for fusion energy investments.
A Star-Studded Investment Round
General Catalyst led the $900 million Series A funding round, joined by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (who has also invested in Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Marathon Fusion, Type One Energy, Xcimer Energy, and Zap Energy). The significant involvement from these high-profile investors further validates Pacific Fusion's technology's potential to impact the fight against climate change:Â
Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel
Patrick Collison, co-founder of Stripe
John Doerr, chairman of Kleiner Perkins
Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft’s AI business
Pacific Fusion BoD Adds Eric Schmidt and Patrick Collision
The influx of new capital significantly strengthened Pacific Fusion's board of directors. The addition of experienced tech leaders and visionaries like General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Stripe's Patrick Collison bodes well for the company's strategic direction and execution capabilities, instilling confidence in Pacific Fusion's future.
Pacific Fusion - High-Gain Pulsed Magnetic Fusion
Pacific Fusion is developing a type of technology known as high-gain pulsed magnetic fusion. This approach uses fast-rising, high-current pulses to magnetically squeeze and heat small containers of deuterium-tritium fuel, driving the fuel to fusion conditions. The company's technology builds upon recent inertial fusion and pulsed power breakthroughs. In 2022, significant advancements were made in the field, with the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) achieving ignition and the highest laboratory fusion performance to date.
Detailed in the Founders Letter, Pacific Fusion's approach is particularly exciting for several reasons:
Established Science - The company builds on proven scientific principles and recent breakthroughs in inertial fusion.
Proven Engineering - Pacific Fusion's fast pulser technology is similar to Sandia's well-proven Z Machine, which is made more efficient and compact thanks to advances in pulsed power engineering.
Scalability - The system is designed with scalability in mind, using small mass-manufacturable units called "bricks" that can be assembled into modules that fit into shipping containers.
Cost-Effectiveness - The fusion chamber is compact and cylindrical, facilitating low-cost maintenance. The system uses widely available materials, and the fuel is significantly cheaper than fossil fuels.
The Road to Commercialization
Pacific Fusion aims to achieve a significant milestone in the field of fusion energy - 'net facility gain.' This means producing more fusion energy output than the total stored energy input, a key indicator of the commercial viability of fusion power. The company is also engineering the components and systems needed for affordable commercial fusion systems. This parallel development approach demonstrates Pacific Fusion's commitment to achieving scientific breakthroughs and creating practical, deployable energy solutions.
Fusion Pacific Founders
Based in Fremont, California, the founders of Pacific Fusion are:
Will Regan - Co-founder and President: Previously worked at Alphabet Inc.'s X, the "moonshot factory" known for far-out projects.
Eric Lander - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer: Led the Human Genome Project and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.Â
Keith LeChien - Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer: Formerly employed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Carrie von Muench - Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer: Also previously worked at Alphabet Inc.'s X, the "moonshot factory" known for far-out projects.
A Unique Funding Structure
The $900 million investment will be released in stages, based on the company meeting certain milestones. While unusual in venture capital, this multi-step financing structure has been used occasionally in the clean tech and biotech industries. This approach aligns investor interests with company performance, ensuring accountability while providing the security of committed funding. It's a creative solution to the challenge of financing long-term, high-risk projects like fusion energy development.
Big Money and Big Names
Pacific Fusion's $900 million funding round is another big round for fusion energy, this time from some of the technology space's nuggets and most successful leaders. The company’s founders all have impressive resumes and have worked together to assemble an all-star board and pull in top-level VCs to fund this new player in the fusion energy market. And as fusion energy continues to gain traction and prominence, we expect to see new players continue to enter the market and current players to continue learning and investing.