This Week's Fusion News: July 31, 2026

CFS raises another $1B to hit $4B total, Thea Energy wins $20M from ARPA-E, ORNL and REV launch a shared fusion testbed, and the FIA logs a $4.48B year for fusion fundraising.

Things You Gotta Know

Wendelstein 7-X Launches a €6 Million Project to Build the World’s Most Powerful Fusion Microwave Heating System
The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics is developing 2-megawatt gyrotrons to upgrade plasma heating on Wendelstein 7-X, the world’s largest stellarator. They would replace the 11 gyrotrons now in service, which top out at 1.3 megawatts, across the machine’s 12 heating positions. Germany’s Federal Ministry of Research is backing the HiPMiB project with €6 million, with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the University of Stuttgart, and Thales as partners on a three-year timeline the project manager calls very ambitious.

US Department of Energy Selects 278 Genesis Mission Projects, Including Commercial Fusion, to Aim AI at Scientific Discovery
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected 278 projects for award negotiations under its Genesis Mission, the AI-driven research initiative led by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, with commercial fusion among the target areas alongside nuclear energy, critical minerals, and chip design. DOE calls it the largest response to a funding opportunity in the department’s history. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory will lead a project building an AI operator for electron cyclotron heating, working with Rice University, the Naval Research Laboratory, Brookhaven, and Sophelio.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Rutherford Energy Ventures Launch FULCRA to Build Shared Fusion Testbed Infrastructure
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Rutherford Energy Ventures are developing the Fusion Upscaled Leveraged Consortia for Rapid Acceleration, or FULCRA, a public-private framework for shared fusion testbed infrastructure anchored at ORNL. REV is a fusion-focused venture fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded by MIT professors Dennis G. Whyte and Andrew Lo. The 18-month effort runs in two phases: the first nine months assess ORNL’s fusion capabilities across three technology domains, then the partners develop a technical blueprint, financial framework, and operating model for a pilot Fulcrum facility to validate commercial fusion components.

The Fusion Industry Association Reports a Record $4.48 Billion Raised in a Single Year Across 56 Companies
The Fusion Industry Association’s annual report puts private fusion fundraising at $4.48 billion over the past year, the industry’s highest annual total and part of a six-year cumulative $14.24 billion across the 56 companies surveyed. FIA chief executive Andrew Holland said the report shows how far fusion has come, from being defined by national labs to being dominated by private fusion investment. Seventy-one percent of respondents expect fusion plants to be delivering electricity to the grid in the 2030s.

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