In the first half of this year, there were 28 new financing deals, representing a 233-fold increase. The valuation of ENN Fusion has reached 10.6 billion yuan. What stage has China's nuclear fusion development reached at present?

Domestic Nuclear Fusion Financing Surges, Commercialization Still Demands Long-Term Technical Breakthroughs.

Energy Foresight has exclusively learned that ENN Fusion's post-money valuation following its Pre-A round of financing has reached 10.6 billion yuan, setting a new record for the highest valuation of a private nuclear fusion enterprise in China.

According to statistics from IT Juzi, in China's primary market during the first half of 2026, the nuclear fusion sector secured 7.268 billion yuan in financing, marking a 233-fold year-on-year increase. Behind the 28 financing events, nearly 30 startups have received capital support.

How has an enterprise that has not yet achieved grid-connected power generation managed to secure a spot on this "all-star" investor list? Beyond that, three key questions deserve exploration behind this boom: What exactly is nuclear fusion? What is the national stance on it? What stage of development have enterprises represented by ENN reached?

The Nuclear Fusion Sector: A Shift in Narrative Logic

The principle of nuclear fusion is not complicated. Simply put, it replicates the process by which the Sun generates light and heat. Two light atomic nuclei combine under extreme high temperature and pressure to form a heavier nucleus, releasing enormous amounts of energy. Fusion fuel on Earth is nearly inexhaustible — the deuterium extracted from one liter of seawater can produce energy equivalent to 300 liters of gasoline through fusion.

However, Energy Foresight believes that what truly excites the capital market is a fundamental shift in the underlying logic of nuclear fusion.

For decades, nuclear fusion has been seen as a scientific experiment that is "always 50 years away."

Today, the simultaneous resonance of four driving forces — technology, capital, policy, and demand — is propelling the industry from the basic research phase into a critical stage of engineering verification and commercial exploration.

The catalytic effect on the demand side is particularly clear. The power hunger brought on by the explosion of AI computing power has left tech giants unable to sit on the sidelines. Microsoft has signed a 50MW power supply agreement with Helion, and Google has secured a 200MW procurement contract with CFS. These deals are not just purchases of electricity — they are votes of confidence that "fusion power generation is no longer a distant dream."

According to estimates from a research report by Debon Securities, the cumulative market size for nuclear fusion reactors will reach 5.2 trillion yuan by 2050. For capital, this is a race to secure a position in the energy landscape of the next decade in advance.

A 200-Billion-Yuan Industrial Fund: Policies Send a Clear Signal

The national attitude toward nuclear fusion has shifted from "encouraging exploration" to "clear advancement."

The Atomic Energy Law, which came into effect in January 2026, explicitly states for the first time at the legal level that "the state encourages and supports scientific research and technological development in controlled thermonuclear fusion." Shortly afterward, the 15th Five-Year Plan Outline designated nuclear fusion energy as a new economic growth point, explicitly requiring progress in the engineering development of nuclear fusion R&D. The Government Work Report included "future energy" in the future industry cultivation list for the first time, with nuclear fusion at the top.

It is reported that in July 2025, China Fusion Energy Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of 15 billion yuan, was established in Shanghai, marking the transition of nuclear fusion from scientific exploration to corporate operation. This "national team" company has a clear strategy: to formulate technical specifications for key components, establish a framework, and stabilize the foundation of the industry.

At the same time, the National Energy Administration set up a 20-billion-yuan fusion industry fund, and the Shanghai Future Industry Fund has been expanded to 15 billion yuan.

The top-level design signals are sufficiently clear: nuclear fusion is no longer an optional long-term vision, but a definite sector that must be advanced during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

Behind the 10-Billion-Yuan Valuation: What is ENN's Differentiated Strategy?

Amid this boom, ENN Fusion has secured a 10.6-billion-yuan valuation based on two core logics.

The first is route differentiation.

Currently, most mainstream global fusion devices are betting on the deuterium-tritium fuel route, with the tokamak as a typical representative. However, deuterium-tritium reactions produce high-energy neutrons, leading to radiation shielding and material activation issues, resulting in high operation, maintenance, and decommissioning costs.

ENN has chosen a spherical torus with hydrogen-boron fuel route — hydrogen-boron fusion produces almost no neutrons, which means a simpler power plant design, lower safety costs, and cheaper fuel (hydrogen and boron are abundant in the Earth's crust).

However, the industry generally acknowledges that this path also has higher technical barriers.

The ignition temperature required for hydrogen-boron fusion is several times that of the deuterium-tritium route. ENN has already verified this on its "Xuanlong-50U" device — at the end of 2025, the device achieved the world's first high-confinement mode discharge of hydrogen-boron plasma, with electron temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius, and comprehensive parameters reaching the highest level among global spherical torus devices.

This set of data has convinced the capital market that hydrogen-boron fusion is not just theoretical.

The second logic is the "parent company's backing."

ENN Group has invested more than 4 billion yuan in total for fusion R&D, and has built two generations of experimental devices. For a Pre-A round company, the parent company's substantial financial investment and accumulated engineering data are more persuasive than any business plan.

ENN has also laid out a clear commercialization timeline: Achieve hydrogen-boron fusion reactions in 2026, light up the first light bulb in 2030, and enter the commercial demonstration phase in 2035. Whether this can be delivered will depend on whether the third-generation device "Helong-2", to be completed by the end of 2027, can overcome the engineering challenge of energy gain.

Upstream Industries Take the Lead, Industry Chain Enterprises Simultaneously Favored by Capital

While full-device companies are securing financing, the upstream part of the nuclear fusion industry chain has already seen the first beneficiaries emerge.

Shuyan Juchuang is a representative example — it does not manufacture full fusion devices, but specializes in neutral beam heating and plasma diagnostic systems, essentially "installing the heart and eyes" for fusion devices.

This company, which was founded less than a year ago, completed two rounds of financing (seed round and angel round) within half a year, raising a total of 100 million yuan.

This logic is identical to that of equipment and material companies in the semiconductor industry: no matter which fusion route eventually prevails, as long as the devices continue to advance in engineering, the demand for heating, diagnostics, power supplies, and control systems will always exist.

Guosheng Securities also predicts that the next 3 to 5 years will be the peak period for bidding on nuclear fusion projects, with major domestic nuclear fusion projects expected to receive a total investment of 146.5 billion yuan. Upstream material suppliers and midstream core equipment manufacturers will be the first to reap industrial dividends as order volumes are released.

A Calm Judgment Amid the Hype

7.268 billion yuan flowed into the nuclear fusion sector in the first half of the year — a figure that is encouraging, but a reality must be faced: from device construction to grid-connected power generation, and then to commercial operation, more than one "decade" of challenges lies ahead.

Currently, most enterprises are still in the phase of developing experimental devices, and a long cycle remains before large-scale commercial implementation. The commercialization of fusion still faces technical bottlenecks such as steady-state operation duration, radiation-resistant materials, and tritium fuel self-sustaining cycles.

Multiple industry practitioners acknowledge that the sector is evolving from "single-point breakthroughs" to "system capability improvement," but there is still a gap before achieving truly continuous power generation.

This round of financing boom in the nuclear fusion sector is less about capital chasing an industry that is about to mature, and more about making early moves to shape the energy landscape of the next decade.

The 10-billion-yuan valuation pays for ENN's existing data and team, and also represents an option for a "neutron-free, low-cost" energy future. Whether this option can be realized depends on whether Helong-2 can be completed on schedule and whether hydrogen-boron fusion can cross the energy gain threshold.

The hype belongs to capital, but reality is unforgiving. Nuclear fusion is never a quick victory. For practitioners and investors alike, maintaining rationality in this ultra-long-cycle sector and focusing on quantifiable verification milestones and engineering capabilities may be more valuable than chasing rising valuations.