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Google is going nuclear, pouring cash into a German startup, racing to build Europe's first commercial fusion power plant. The tech giant joined a massive $468 million funding round for Munich-based Proxima Fusion which just rocketed to a jaw-dropping $2.7 billion valuation.
The blockbuster round was led by XTX Ventures and East X Ventures, with RWE, SKion, KfW, and Google all jumping in as strategic backers. Other heavy hitters piled on too, including Plural, UVC Partners, Balderton, and Cherry Ventures.
Fusion works by fusing hydrogen atoms into helium and releasing enormous bursts of energy without the radioactive waste tied to traditional fission. Every nuclear plant operating today relies on fission and splits atoms apart rather than fusing them together. Fusion promises something bigger, cleaner, and nearly limitless.
Proxima is betting on stellarator technology to get there and is building a €2 billion demonstrator nicknamed Alpha that's set to fire up in the early 2030s. A full-blown commercial power plant is targeted for the mid-2030s while the company's total war chest for Alpha now stands at a staggering €800 million.
Proxima said the fresh cash will fuel expansion of its high-temperature superconducting cable and magnet production while ramping up hiring across engineering, manufacturing, and operations. The startup already employs 200 people spread across Munich, Zurich, and Oxford, making it Europe's best-funded fusion player by a wide margin.
"Europe is racing with the United States and China to get to the first fusion power plant," said Francesco Sciortino, the company's cofounder and CEO. He added that investors clearly see the urgency, and the opportunity, in building what he calls a generational energy technology company.
Google has a prior track record in fusion investment, and it previously backed Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which recently secured $863 million, pushing its total funding to $2.9 billion. Sam Altman-backed Helion Energy also raised $465 million last month and brought its own total funding past $1.5 billion.
Even Google admits the road ahead is brutal and has warned that commercializing fusion remains immensely challenging with success far from guaranteed. Google has called this its way of sending a demand signal to markets.
