11.5 billion yuan: The largest financing deal in Shanghai this year has emerged.
A newly emerged unicorn unveils its veil.
According to investment industry sources, yesterday (July 22), the inauguration ceremony of China Fusion Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fusion Company") was officially held in Shanghai. Seven investors behind it surfaced - China National Nuclear Corporation, China National Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., Kunlun Capital of PetroChina, Shanghai Fusion, National Green Development Fund, Zhejiang Energy Electric Power Co., Ltd., and Sichuan Fusion, announcing a joint investment of 11.492 billion yuan.
With such a lineup, it created the largest financing deal in Shanghai this year.
The protagonist this time, Fusion Company, is backed by China National Nuclear Corporation. It was established in 2023 in response to the national strategic development requirements for future industries. As China's "artificial sun," this company undertakes the task of realizing the commercial application of fusion energy and is making an impact on the "ultimate energy for humanity."
Financing of 1.15 billion yuan
A newly emerged unicorn makes its debut
This scene attracted much attention.
On July 22, the inauguration ceremony of China Fusion Energy Co., Ltd. was officially held in Shanghai. Gong Zheng, the Deputy Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and the Mayor of Shanghai, attended the ceremony and jointly unveiled the plaque for the establishment of China Fusion Company with Shen Yanfeng, the Party Secretary and Chairman of China National Nuclear Corporation.
Data shows that Fusion Company was originally China Nuclear Fuel Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corporation. In 2023, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council launched the Future Industry Initiative, identifying the field of controllable nuclear fusion as an important direction for future energy. In the same year, the preparatory office of China Fusion Energy Co., Ltd. was unveiled, and the first batch of key technology research tasks for future energy were announced.
Fusion Company is highly anticipated - it will adopt the magnetic confinement tokamak as the technical route and follow the three - step development stages of the pilot experimental reactor, demonstration reactor, and commercial reactor to ultimately achieve the task goal of the commercial application of fusion energy.
At the scene yesterday, Fusion Company signed capital increase and share expansion agreements with shareholders such as China National Nuclear Corporation, Kunlun Capital of PetroChina, Shanghai Future Fusion, China National Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Energy Electric Power Co., Ltd., National Green Development Fund, and Sichuan Heavy - Science Fusion, and the investors behind it emerged.
The announcement shows that China National Nuclear Corporation, China National Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., Kunlun Capital of PetroChina, Shanghai Fusion, National Green Development Fund, Zhejiang Energy Electric Power Co., Ltd., and Sichuan Fusion jointly invested 11.492 billion yuan in Fusion Company. Calculated by the capital increase ratio, the valuation of Fusion Company easily exceeded 10 billion yuan, making it another super unicorn in Shanghai.
There are familiar figures in the venture capital circle among them -
Kunlun Capital of PetroChina invested 3 billion yuan, holding 20% of the shares and becoming the second - largest shareholder. This institution is an industrial investment and capital operation platform directly under PetroChina and has previously made large - scale investments in Anhui - based nuclear fusion company NeoFusion.
Shanghai Fusion was established in 2024 and was jointly established by Shanghai Future Industry Fund, Shanghai State - owned Investment Corporation, Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd., Minhang JinTou, and Shenergy Group Co., Ltd. The actual controller is the Shanghai State - owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Previously, Shanghai Future Industry Fund announced its intention to make a strategic investment in Fusion Company, which is its first direct investment project since its establishment.
The National Green Development Fund was jointly initiated by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the Shanghai Municipal Government, with a total scale of 88.5 billion yuan. It focuses on investing in fields such as environmental protection and pollution prevention, ecological restoration and land greening, and clean energy.
In short, this time China National Nuclear Corporation has gathered a luxurious circle of friends.
Why was it established in Shanghai?
Nuclear fusion is on the verge of explosion.
Let's first explain nuclear fusion. In principle, nuclear fusion is a process in which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, releasing a huge amount of energy. Because it has the same combustion mechanism as the sun, controllable nuclear fusion devices are often called "artificial suns," but they are still in the experimental stage.
With almost zero cost, zero pollution, and infinite availability, controllable nuclear fusion is also regarded as the "ultimate energy." It can be said that once the large - scale commercialization of controllable nuclear fusion is achieved, the way of human production and life will be completely subverted. Therefore, the seemingly science - fiction and cutting - edge nuclear fusion has become a hotly contested area.
The venture capital circle still has a deep impression. Previously, domestic companies focusing on nuclear fusion technology, such as NeoFusion, Energy Singularity, and Star Ring Fusion Energy, successively announced financing, with institutions such as Kunlun Capital of PetroChina, Shunwei Capital, Zhongke Chuangxing, and NIO Capital in the background.
We have to mention Energy Singularity, also based in Shanghai. It was established in 2021 and has completed two rounds of financing, the angel round and the Pre - A round, with investors including NIO Capital, Sequoia China Seed Fund, BlueRun Ventures, and Mihoyo. In 2024, the Honghuang 70 device designed, developed, and built by Energy Singularity successfully achieved plasma discharge.
"By 2035, China may see the first kilowatt - hour of electricity generated by controllable nuclear fusion," said Yang Zhao, the founder and CEO of the company. He once said that it seems that this can only be achieved in Shanghai.
Shanghai has spared no effort in developing future industries. As early as 2022, Shanghai released the "Action Plan for Shanghai to Build an Innovation High - ground for Future Industries and Develop and Expand Future Industry Clusters," clearly stating that "by 2030, a number of world - influential hardcore achievements, innovative enterprises, and leading talents will emerge in fields such as future health, future intelligence, future energy, future space, and future materials, and the output value of future industries will reach about 500 billion yuan."
Subsequently, Shanghai announced the establishment of a future industry fund with a total scale of 10 billion yuan, focusing on disruptive innovation, multi - disciplinary cross - innovation, and the incubation and early - stage investment of cutting - edge platform technologies, with a focus on six major future industries, including future information, future energy, future space, future health, future manufacturing, and future materials.
Perhaps few people know that Shanghai is the birthplace of the domestic nuclear power industry. China's first nuclear power plant, the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, bears a deep Shanghai imprint. The technical research and development of the nuclear island and the overall design of the power plant were undertaken by the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute, the design of the conventional island was undertaken by the East China Electric Power Design Institute, and more than 50% of the core equipment was manufactured in Shanghai...
Now, Shanghai has a strong leading advantage in the field of advanced nuclear energy. It not only has leading enterprises such as the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute, China Nuclear Engineering & Construction Group Corporation, East China Electric Power Design Institute of PowerChina, and Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd., but also specialized and innovative private enterprises such as Apollo Machinery Co., Ltd., Shanghai Valve Co., Ltd., and Energy Singularity, as well as a complete industrial ecosystem supported by universities and research institutions such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"Previously, the expected time for the industrialization of nuclear fusion was 50 years. Now, high - temperature superconducting materials have significantly reduced the cost and construction cycle of nuclear fusion." Wei Fanjie, the manager of the Shanghai State - owned Investment Future Industry Fund, said when talking about the investment logic that he hopes to see some industrialization and commercialization opportunities in cutting - edge fields.
The end of AI is energy
China, the hidden power kingdom
A global energy revolution is sweeping across the world.
A Goldman Sachs report shows that driven by the demand for artificial intelligence, the global data center power demand will surge by 160% by 2030. In fact, ChatGPT "consumes" 500,000 kilowatt - hours of electricity every day, and the training of a Google AI model consumes as much electricity as 3,000 Teslas. Traditional energy can no longer meet this power - hungry frenzy.
Since last year, companies such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and Amazon have successively signed power purchase or cooperation agreements with nuclear power companies, starting the "nuclear power plant + data center" model to supply power to their own data center parks.
The sense of crisis of tech giants scrambling for power is not unfounded. The power infrastructure in the United States has been outdated for a long time, large - scale power outages occur frequently, and the growth of power transmission capacity is slow. The former CEO of Google once said bluntly:
"We can no longer train the next AI. It's not that the technology lags behind, but that there isn't enough electricity in the United States."
"If the previous round of the Internet relied on computing power + connectivity, this time AI relies on computing power + power supply." A report from the Alibaba Research Institute shows that power cost has become the largest operating cost for intelligent computing clusters, accounting for about 60% - 70%, and it also places higher requirements on the continuity and stability of power supply. This means that without national - level energy supply guarantee, AI will be difficult to continuously evolve and make breakthroughs.
Different from Europe and the United States, China is one of the countries least worried about power supply, producing more than 30% of the world's electricity on its own.
Behind the stable supply is long - term attention. China's new - generation nuclear power technology is in the global first echelon, and it has continuously invested in clean energy such as hydropower, photovoltaics, and wind power, which has ensured a continuous supply of electricity.
As of the end of April 2025, China's installed capacity of renewable energy power generation reached 2.017 billion kilowatts, a year - on - year increase of 58%. The combined installed capacity of wind and solar power reached 1.53 billion kilowatts, historically exceeding that of thermal power. The installed capacity of nuclear power plants under construction has ranked first in the world for 18 consecutive years.
"Electric power has become China's most hidden but most powerful economic weapon, quietly changing the global manufacturing power structure." A recent report in the British "Financial Times" exclaimed that China is about to become the first "power kingdom" in human history.
Quietly, an energy miracle is happening here. A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows that in 2025, China's share in global energy investment exceeded 30%, of which clean energy investment accounted for more than 70%. It can be said that the global energy change trend largely depends on China's development.
In the next decade, whoever controls energy will win.
As Ren Zhengfei said, artificial intelligence and nuclear fusion in the energy field may be the last technological revolution in human society.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment Circle", author: Wang Lu. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.