Nuclear fusion company raises $863M, much bound for Chesterfield

Massachusetts-based fusion energy company Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which is planning to build the world’s first grid-scale nuclear fusion energy plant in Chesterfield County, announced it has raised $863 million in a Series B2 fundraising round, much of which will be used to construct the $2.5 billion-plus plant.

CFS will use some of the funds to progress development on the 400-megawatt fusion power plant in Chesterfield, dubbed ARC, which is expected to be in operation in the 2030s.

Last month, the county’s planning commission unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the facility. The nuclear fusion power plant is slated to be built on a roughly 94-acre property at 1201 Battery Brooke Parkway in the James River Industrial Center. Dominion Energy owns the site, but CFS has signed an option-to-lease agreement.

The county’s board of supervisors is scheduled to vote on the permit Sept. 17. CFS plans to begin construction on ARC in the late 2020s and anticipates that ARC will start generating carbon-free power for the grid in the early 2030s.

The company says the $863 million raised is the largest amount any deep tech and energy company has raised since CFS’s $1.8 billion Series B round in 2021. In total, the company has raised close to $3 billion, which it says is one-third of the total capital invested in private fusion companies worldwide. CFS said the latest funding round was “oversubscribed,” which means the company received more money than it initially intended to raise.

CFS intends to use other portions of the funding raised to complete SPARC, a fusion demonstration machine being built at its headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts. That machine is expected to start operations in 2026.

“Investors recognize that CFS is making fusion power a reality,” Bob Mumgaard, CFS CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “They see that we are executing and delivering on our objectives. This funding recognizes CFS’ leadership role in developing a new technology that promises to be a reliable source of clean, almost limitless energy — and will enable investors to have the opportunity to capitalize on the birth of a new global industry.”

Several international investors joined the most recent funding round, including subsidiaries of Morgan Stanley, Nvidia, Galaxy Digital and Dubai’s FFA Private Bank. Stanley Druckenmiller, a billionaire former chairman and president of Duquesne Capital, invested in the company for the first time, and a consortium of 12 Japanese companies led by Mitsui & Co. also participated.

Earlier investors increased their stakes as well, including Google, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Starlight Ventures, Emerson Collective and Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO.

Google signed an agreement this summer to buy 200 megawatts of electricity (half the facility’s expected power output) from the Chesterfield facility. Google will also have the option to offtake power from future ARC plants.

Spun off of MIT in 2018, CFS has more than 1,000 employees. It is one of more than 40 companies currently developing fusion technologies.