Kontrollierbare Kernfusion ist populär geworden, und mehr als hundert Investmentgesellschaften kämpfen um Anteile.
Surprisingly, controlled nuclear fusion, which is referred to as the "artificial sun", has become a subject for many investors to catch up on in 2025.
Although three years ago was the "investment year" for this sector, the number of investment institutions that really wanted to evaluate and enter this sector was quite small. At that time, many investors even doubted that startup companies were working on the development of an "artificial sun".
Recently, the "Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 14th Five - Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" was adopted, which provides for the forward - looking planning of future industries and aims to promote nuclear fusion energy as a new economic growth point. These industries are gaining momentum, and in the next 10 years, China's high - tech industry will be rebuilt.
Under the influence of factors such as government support, technological development, and market demand, the attitude of investors towards controlled nuclear fusion has changed significantly - from skepticism to systematic research. The signal is clear: This sector cannot be missed, and it's time to take action.
On October 21st, Anton Fusion officially announced that it has completed a first - round financing of nearly 100 million yuan from Lenovo Star, Qifu Capital, Pangu Venture Capital, Daoyi Capital, and Tsinghua Alumni Fund. In addition, it will soon start a second - round financing.
According to my information, at least two Chinese startup companies in the field of controlled nuclear fusion completed a new round of financing in 2025 or will do so soon, but the financing news has not been officially released yet.
After a long period of waiting, startup companies in the field of controlled nuclear fusion are getting more and more attention from capital providers. Not only have PE funds, which are more risk - averse, started to invest in this sector, but there are even cases where investment institutions compete for share quotas.
The reaction in the secondary market was also quick. Recently, the stocks of several companies in the field of controlled nuclear fusion have witnessed successive price jumps. Looking at the time period, it can be found that the stock prices of many listed companies related to controlled nuclear fusion have risen significantly since 2025, bringing considerable returns to investors.
From the "H - bomb" to the "artificial sun"
This "holy grail of energy" that many are enthusiastic about has a long development history. As early as the 1940s, scientists understood the principle of nuclear fusion.
Put simply, when lighter atomic nuclei fuse into heavier atomic nuclei, a huge amount of energy can be released, such as the fusion of deuterium and tritium into helium. With the detonation of the world's first H - bomb, humans were able to achieve a nuclear fusion reaction for the first time, even though it was an uncontrolled nuclear fusion.
If this huge amount of energy is to be used as a usable energy source, the violent nuclear fusion reaction must be controlled. Controlled nuclear fusion, which is called the "artificial sun" and has advantages such as sufficient raw materials, safety, and environmental friendliness, has thus become the ultimate energy source that many people strive for.
However, it is a great challenge to build a device that can carry out a controlled nuclear fusion reaction like the sun. It was not until the emergence of the Tokamak device in the 1950s that the temperature, density, and confinement time of the plasma required for controlled nuclear fusion were converted into technical problems such as confinement power, magnetic field strength, and device size.
In other words, if the feasibility has already been proven in theory, the realization of the "artificial sun" through revolutionary improvements in materials, structures, and technologies can no longer be regarded as unattainable.
In addition to the magnetic confinement method represented by the Tokamak device, there are also other technologies for realizing controlled nuclear fusion, such as the inertial confinement method (including laser and Z - pinch methods) and the magnetic inertial confinement method. Currently, the magnetic confinement method dominates, and fusion devices also include stellarators and linear field - reversed configurations.
Although the realization of controlled nuclear fusion is no longer unattainable, the development of the "artificial sun" has been almost stagnant for a long time under the influence of factors such as the international situation, technological development, and capital investment. Even the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project (ITER), which was proposed by several countries in 1985, still has no definite completion time due to repeated budget overruns.
Therefore, the saying "It's still 50 years until the realization of controlled nuclear fusion" emerged - if you ask scientists at any time when controlled nuclear fusion can be realized, you will always get the answer "50 years". This also indirectly reflects the difficulty of humanity's path towards the "artificial sun".
Around the 2010s, technologies such as AI and high - temperature superconductivity began to drive the development of controlled nuclear fusion forward. However, in view of the high investment costs and long payback period, the number of startup companies and investment institutions involved in this field was still very small worldwide.
Over time, controlled nuclear fusion has achieved a series of new progress. Together with the increasing market demand for clean energy sources, capital providers have increasingly increased their investments in this sector.
From the "H - bomb" to the "artificial sun"
This "holy grail of energy" that many are enthusiastic about has a long development history. As early as the 1940s, scientists understood the principle of nuclear fusion.
Put simply, when lighter atomic nuclei fuse into heavier atomic nuclei, a huge amount of energy can be released, such as the fusion of deuterium and tritium into helium. With the detonation of the world's first H - bomb, humans were able to achieve a nuclear fusion reaction for the first time, even though it was an uncontrolled nuclear fusion.
If this huge amount of energy is to be used as a usable energy source, the violent nuclear fusion reaction must be controlled. Controlled nuclear fusion, which is called the "artificial sun" and has advantages such as sufficient raw materials, safety, and environmental friendliness, has thus become the ultimate energy source that many people strive for.
However, it is a great challenge to build a device that can carry out a controlled nuclear fusion reaction like the sun. It was not until the emergence of the Tokamak device in the 1950s that the temperature, density, and confinement time of the plasma required for controlled nuclear fusion were converted into technical problems such as confinement power, magnetic field strength, and device size.
In other words, if the feasibility has already been proven in theory, the realization of the "artificial sun" through revolutionary improvements in materials, structures, and technologies can no longer be regarded as unattainable.
In addition to the magnetic confinement method represented by the Tokamak device, there are also other technologies for realizing controlled nuclear fusion, such as the inertial confinement method (including laser and Z - pinch methods) and the magnetic inertial confinement method. Currently, the magnetic confinement method dominates, and fusion devices also include stellarators and linear field - reversed configurations.
Although the realization of controlled nuclear fusion is no longer unattainable, the development of the "artificial sun" has been almost stagnant for a long time under the influence of factors such as the international situation, technological development, and capital investment. Even the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project (ITER), which was proposed by several countries in 1985, still has no definite completion time due to repeated budget overruns.
Therefore, the saying "It's still 50 years until the realization of controlled nuclear fusion" emerged - if you ask scientists at any time when controlled nuclear fusion can be realized, you will always get the answer "50 years". This also indirectly reflects the difficulty of humanity's path towards the "artificial sun".
Around the 2010s, technologies such as AI and high - temperature superconductivity began to drive the development of controlled nuclear fusion forward. However, in view of the high investment costs and long payback period, the number of startup companies and investment institutions involved in this field was still very small worldwide.
Over time, controlled nuclear fusion has achieved a series of new progress. Together with the increasing market demand for clean energy sources, capital providers have increasingly increased their investments in this sector.
Investors bet on the "artificial sun"
The turning point was the year 2021. Two large - scale financings accelerated the establishment of startups and investments in the field of controlled nuclear fusion.
In June of that year, Helion Energy announced that it had heated the plasma to over 100 million degrees Celsius. Five months later, this startup company received 500 million US dollars from investors such as Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI.
Shortly after, Commonwealth Fusion Systems completed a financing round of 1.8 billion US dollars from investors such as Bill Gates, George Soros, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, in December 2021, breaking the financing record in the field of controlled nuclear fusion.
Although the private company ENN Group started planning for controlled nuclear fusion in 2017, the first Chinese startup companies in this field only appeared in 2021 - Energy Singularity was founded in Shanghai in June, and Star Ring Fusion was founded in Xi'an in October.
Energy Singularity was founded by several foreign experts in theoretical physics, plasma physics, and high - temperature superconductivity. All the core members of the Star Ring Fusion team are graduates of the School of Nuclear Engineering at Tsinghua University. They have been researching controlled nuclear fusion for nearly 20 years and have also operated China's first spherical Tokamak (China United Spherical Tokamak SUNIST) for over 20 years.
In fact, the founding teams of Energy Singularity and Star Ring Fusion had the idea of founding a company earlier, but they were waiting for the right time to enter this sector. According to a report from "LatePost", they had talked about founding a company in 2020 or even earlier, but it was only after their American colleagues announced that they had received large - scale financings that they began to write business plans and promote financing.
Eight months after its establishment, Energy Singularity completed a first - round financing of nearly 400 million yuan from investors such as Mihoyo, NIO Capital, Sequoia China Seed Fund, and BlueRun Ventures. At that time, from the perspective of Sequoia China, controlled nuclear fusion was no longer a distant dream, as some major problems in relevant key technologies and materials had been solved and verified recently, and the global activity in this field had increased.
In June 2022, Star Ring Fusion announced that it had completed an angel - round financing of several hundred million yuan from investors such as Shunwei Capital, Kunlun Capital, Zhongke Chuangxing, Telescope Ventures, Morningside Venture Capital, Sequoia China Seed Fund, Xianfeng Changqing, Nine9 Ventures, Lenovo Star, Inno Angel Fund, Yuanhe Origin, and Huafang Capital.
In addition to Star Ring Fusion, Zhongke Chuangxing has also invested in companies related to the nuclear fusion industry, such as Star Energy Xuanguang, Yixi Technology, Shenci Technology, Xihe Superconductivity, Xirong Zhaobo, and Li Ran Juxin. About six or seven years ago, Mi Lei, the founding partner of Zhongke Chuangxing, began to be interested in the field of controlled nuclear fusion. In his view, the breakthrough in high - temperature superconducting materials has enabled the miniaturization of controlled nuclear fusion devices, and the huge demand for computing power and energy from artificial intelligence has also created new investment opportunities in this field.
In November 2022, Anton Fusion was founded in Beijing, which was jointly founded by academician Peng Xianjue of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Dr. Liu Cheng from the School of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University and is the first commercial company for Z - pinch fusion in China. One month later, Haohan Fusion was founded in Chengdu, which was founded by Xiang Jiang, who has over 20 years of experience in researching and working on all major technologies of controlled nuclear fusion, and is the first Chinese commercial company for controlled nuclear fusion that has chosen the technology of linear field - reversed configuration (FRC).
After the seed - round financing from Light Boat Capital, Haohan Fusion completed an angel - round financing of 50 million yuan from investors such as Huaying Capital, Miracle Plus, Light Boat Capital, and Houshi Capital in the first half of 2024. Tao Kai, the deputy general manager of Haohan Fusion, told me that they are currently conducting a new round of financing and have already received support from some investment institutions.
Compared with the initial stage, this startup company clearly felt in 2025 that the financing direction had changed. "In the past, we had to work very hard to find investors and explain to them what controlled nuclear fusion is." According to Tao Kai, they have contacted over a hundred investment institutions this year, and many investors have actively reached out.
The emerging financing wave was already noticeable at the beginning of 2025. At that time, Helion Energy completed a Series F financing round of 425 million US dollars from investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Sam Altman, Secretarium Capital, and Capricorn Investment Group, and its company value reached 5.425 billion US dollars.
In April 2025, Nova Fusion was founded in Shanghai. Three months later, this company completed an angel - round financing of 500 million yuan from investors such as the Special Fund for Independent Innovation in Zhongguancun of the Social Security Fund (managed by Legend Capital), Legend Capital, Lightspeed China Partners, Gao Rong Capital, Huarong Fund, Mingshi Ventures, Lingang Science and Technology Innovation Investment, and Alibaba, breaking the record for a single - round financing of a private Chinese fusion company.
Shortly after, Anton Fusion officially announced on October 21st that it has completed a first - round financing of nearly 100 million yuan from Lenovo Star, Qifu Capital, Pangu Venture Capital, Daoyi Capital, and Tsinghua Alumni Fund. In addition, it will soon start a second - round financing.
It's not just them; other startup companies have also made progress in financing. According to my information, at least two Chinese startup companies in the field of controlled nuclear fusion completed a new round of financing in 2025