Type One Energy closes $200M for supplier-built fusion plant

Type One Energy, which is developing stellarator fusion plants through a partner-led manufacturing model, has completed a $200 million Series B. Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Clutterbuck Capital co-led the round, which will support its FusionDirect program and Project Infinity at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bull Run site.

A stellarator uses carefully shaped magnetic fields to hold superheated plasma while hydrogen atoms fuse and release energy. Type One’s near-term product isn’t electricity yet; it is the engineering package needed to make that process work inside a maintainable power plant. The company previously said a finalized design could be licensed to another builder.

Infinity One is the prototype meant to validate the design, assembly and maintenance of a larger machine. Infinity Two is the proposed 400-megawatt commercial plant at the same Tennessee site. CEO Christofer Mowry told TechCrunch that Type One aims to bring it online by 2034; the company says it has received an initial state operating license for Project Infinity.

The company plans to design the plant and many components, then have a project-specific supplier network build much of the hardware. AECOM is engineering Infinity Two, while Type One has licensed high-temperature superconducting magnet technology from Commonwealth Fusion Systems. That structure avoids building every factory in-house, but it gives Type One less direct control over suppliers and quality.

The round is substantial but not full plant financing. Mowry told TechCrunch it should get Type One about halfway toward paying for the commercial facility, and he anticipated one or more subsequent rounds. Infinity One also has to show that a supplier-built machine can be assembled and maintained as designed.