January 29, 2025 - USA: Helion Energy has raised $425 million in a Series F funding round, bringing its valuation to $5.245 billion. The company aims to deliver the first commercial fusion power plant by 2028, with a 50-megawatt power purchase agreement signed with Microsoft.
Helion plans to manufacture key components in-house, including capacitors, semiconductors, and magnets, to accelerate development. CEO David Kirtley stated that this shift aims to reduce component lead times from three years to under a year.
The company employs a field-reversed configuration (FRC) reactor, which accelerates magnetized plasma rings to over 1 million miles per hour, colliding them to trigger fusion. This method extracts energy directly from magnetic field interactions, potentially increasing efficiency compared to traditional steam-driven reactors.
Helion utilizes helium-3 as a fuel source, offering lower radiation output but facing supply challenges due to its rarity. The next reactor is designed to pulse several times per second, targeting grid-matching frequencies of 60 pulses per second.
Microsoft's long-term energy strategy increasingly incorporates nuclear and fusion power, with the tech giant actively pursuing small modular reactors (SMRs) and hiring nuclear engineers to integrate these solutions into its infrastructure.
Despite the enthusiasm for fusion energy, Helion must overcome significant challenges, including achieving net energy gain, regulatory approvals, and securing a site for its first plant. The company continues to test its prototype, Polaris, to validate energy capture and plasma confinement technologies.
If successful, Helion could become the first private entity to supply fusion-generated electricity to the grid, though skepticism remains regarding the commercial viability of fusion energy.