Gauss Fusion reportedly seeks $150M for GIGA stellarator plant

Gauss Fusion is designing GIGA, an integrated stellarator power plant for future power-sector operators, but it is not producing electricity today. Axios Pro reports that the German startup has begun meeting investors about a $150 million Series A, with its new chief executive seeking American backers.

The core design uses superconducting magnets to hold extremely hot plasma in a carefully shaped field so fusion can run steadily rather than in pulses. A July paper by the Gauss Fusion team presents a design basis modeled for 3 gigawatts of fusion power and 1 gigawatt of electricity. Those are planned specifications, not results from an operating plant.

GIGA remains a design project. At a March 2026 Max Planck Institute colloquium, Gauss described its completed conceptual design review as the first phase of a roadmap toward a plant in the early 2040s. The review covered design choices, unresolved risks, project structure and development planning and was presented to 14 fusion and nuclear-industry experts.

Gauss was founded in 2022 and is backed by private industrial companies from Germany, France, Italy and Spain that have supplied the ITER fusion program, according to Max Planck. Axios says the new chief executive is trying to add American investors to that European base. The $150 million remains a fundraising target, not capital Gauss has announced as secured.

Building a power station requires more than confining plasma. The conceptual work also joins the stellarator to coil systems, tritium breeding and the fuel cycle, maintenance and site selection. Gauss’s July leadership announcement said the company had moved into engineering, testing, technology maturation and industrial validation ahead of an industrial demonstration.