Hard Krypton Exclusive | Secured hundreds of millions in Angel Round, with heavy investment from Hillhouse and HSG, Hefei Nuclear Fusion breeds a new dark horse
Yingke has learned that the controlled nuclear fusion enterprise, Juhe Fusion, has completed an angel - round financing of hundreds of millions of yuan. The investors include Hillhouse Ventures, Sequoia China, Tongchuang Weiye, Hefei Innovation Investment under Hefei Industrial Investment, BV Baidu Ventures, and Guoyuan Equity under Guoyuan Securities. The first - round funds will be mainly used for the iterative R & D of the FRC pulsed magnetic confinement fusion device, the self - research of core key components, the construction of the engineering system, and the expansion of the high - end talent echelon, further promoting the systematic engineering implementation of the FRC pulsed magnetic confinement fusion technology.
Juhe Fusion was established in March 2026 and is located in Hefei. In the process of domestic nuclear fusion development, Hefei is an unavoidable coordinate. There are universities and research institutions such as the University of Science and Technology of China, the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Hefei University of Technology, which are core in cultivating nuclear fusion talents, and a relatively complete upstream and downstream industrial system for fusion.
The development of Juhe Fusion has also received support from Anhui Province and Hefei City. Guoyuan Securities and Hefei Industrial Investment, the follow - on investors in this round, are important investment platforms of the provincial and municipal governments of Anhui and Hefei respectively. Juhe Fusion is also the first project invested by the Hefei Future Fusion Energy Fund.
The founder, Kong Defeng, graduated from the Department of Plasma Physics of the University of Science and Technology of China. He has long been engaged in research related to magnetic confinement plasma particles. He is currently the Executive Dean of the School of Fusion Science and Engineering at Hefei University of Technology, the Academic Secretary of the Engineering Design Project of the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR), and the Chief Scientist of the National Key R & D Program on Compact Toroids. He once served as the Director of the Science and Development Department and the Director of the Fusion Center at the Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center Energy Research Institute.
The Chief Scientist, Ding Weixing, is a Distinguished Professor, a doctoral supervisor at the University of Science and Technology of China, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS Fellow). He once served as the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Science and Technology project "Research on the Reversed - Field Pinch Magnetic Confinement Fusion Configuration".
The company's core team consists of top - notch scientists, engineers, and management talents at home and abroad. The core members are from Hefei University of Technology, the University of Science and Technology of China, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, etc., and have rich experience in fusion research and fusion reactor engineering.
Compared with chemical energy, wind energy, photovoltaic energy, and other energy sources, controlled nuclear fusion is widely recognized as the ultimate energy technology direction for humanity due to its safety, cleanliness, and high energy output. Currently, driven by both technological accumulation and energy demand, the fusion triple product, which has been explored for more than 60 years, has increased by more than ten thousand times. Global private and public capital is pouring in heavily. Nuclear fusion energy has been officially included in China's "15th Five - Year Plan" as a future industry, ushering in a window period of rapid commercial development.
Among many fusion paths, compared with the large - scale and highly complex steady - state tokamak and stellarator routes, the FRC device is relatively compact, has a fast operation rhythm, and can achieve rapid technological iteration with lower capital and time investment, attracting a lot of attention. Currently, two of the top three most valuable fusion commercialization companies in the United States adopt the magneto - inertial confinement fusion route of the Field - Reversed Configuration (FRC), namely Helion Energy and TAE Technologies.
Juhe Fusion adopts the technical route of magnetically compressing FRC plasma, which does not require complex toroidal magnets or auxiliary heating systems, and the device structure is simpler. The core of its technology lies in using a pulsed high - power power supply to drive the magnetic field to significantly increase the plasma density and temperature, thereby achieving an increase in the fusion triple product within the pulsed operation confinement time. It is currently one of the recognized controlled nuclear fusion technology routes with relatively low iteration costs and fast R & D progress.
Kong Defeng told Yingke that the first thing to face and solve next is to achieve the target parameters of the first - generation device. "Currently, there is no shortage of imagination about application scenarios in the market. What is lacking is a team that can down - to - earth and quickly and stably build the device."
The following is an interview with the founder, Kong Defeng, by Yingke:
Yingke: Why did you choose to start a business now?
Kong Defeng: I have worked in research institutions for many years. In this process, I clearly felt that although the tokamak is good and reliable, there are also some potential problems. For example, in the burning plasma environment, can the tokamak be maintained stably for a long time? Because any small plasma instability, if magnified continuously like the butterfly effect, may lead to the breakdown of the entire discharge process and even cause damage to the device. In the process of controlling it, sometimes I feel a sense of powerlessness.
In contrast, the FRC has many interesting features. Its entire fusion process is extremely fast, the construction cycle is short, and the device cost is relatively lower. This means that some forward - looking ideas of physical and engineering designers can achieve rapid technological iteration. In addition, the interests of the team are bound to the interests of the company, which can make core talents more motivated and willing to persist in doing things more deeply and for a longer time.
When establishing Juhe Fusion, we were very lucky to encounter the "right time, right place, and right people": the country has included controlled nuclear fusion in the six future industry plans, there is sufficient capital in the market willing to invest in cutting - edge and future technologies, the multi - disciplinary advantages of universities support us, and our company's team has ideals and combat effectiveness. This is a very good historical opportunity.
Yingke: A very crucial core in the FRC route is the "pulsed power system". What are the specialties of your team in this regard?
Kong Defeng: The pulsed high - power power supply system is our core advantage, and our talent reserve in this area is the deepest in China. I previously worked on the core fueling system of the compact toroid for 9 years. Its essential principle is a plasma electromagnetic gun, and its power supply requirements are extremely close to those of the FRC. In the past 9 - year accumulation, we cooperated with the University of Science and Technology of China and relied on the Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center Energy Research Institute and the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to conduct a lot of research on pulsed high - power power supplies.
We have tried various switches, including the latest and most recognized solid - state switches based on pulsed thyristors. Through a large amount of data accumulation, we have a very in - depth understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of various power supply systems, and we have successfully developed a pulsed high - power power supply system based on solid - state switches and fully tested its performance.
There are very few teams in China that can independently carry out and meet these conditions. Since the pulsed high - power power supply system accounts for more than half of the total cost of the FRC fusion device, our team has complete independent R & D capabilities, which means that we can significantly shorten the R & D cycle, improve system stability, and manufacture the device at cost price, greatly reducing the R & D cost.
Yingke: What do you hope to verify or what goals do you hope to achieve on the first - generation device?
Kong Defeng: Objectively speaking, no one in China has truly succeeded in the FRC technology route based on pulsed magnetic compression, and no one has obtained relevant experimental data and results. So our first - generation device is a bit like starting from scratch. Although some phased results have been achieved abroad, when we start in China, we still need to lay a solid foundation.
We have two main goals for the first - generation device: one is technical verification. We need to truly build a test platform for the formation, acceleration, and compression of the FRC, and systematically verify the formation parameters of the FRC - configuration plasma ring, as well as its compression and acceleration schemes. The other is team integration. Our existing team can handle physical design and engineering design. Everyone has cooperated on various fusion devices, but for the FRC, there is still a process between the design drawings and the actual construction of the device. We need to systematically verify the team's capabilities through the test platform.
Yingke: Compared with other companies doing FRC, what are the current core advantages of Juhe Fusion?
Kong Defeng: To truly carry out controlled nuclear fusion, the most important thing is the gathering of talents. We need a stable and growing team, and we have a great advantage in this regard. On the one hand, Hefei has the most concentrated fusion - related majors and universities in the country, so there is a profound multi - disciplinary talent reserve. For example, Hefei University of Technology has deep accumulation in the engineering field, has one of the only two vacuum departments in the country, and also has a solid foundation in pulsed high - power power supply systems. Students from Hefei University of Technology have long been deeply involved in the construction of controlled nuclear fusion projects. On the other hand, our company has also gathered a combat - capable team with rich experience in fusion reactor physical design and engineering design, and the team echelon construction is perfect. Our front - line colleagues are young, brave in challenges, and full of enthusiasm. I believe that such a team can do this thing well.