A Canadian company believes it can solve a problem that physicists have been trying to crack for 70 years. Some extra cash from Wall Street might help them do it.
What happened: B.C.-based General Fusion became the first nuclear fusion company to go public after making its Nasdaq debut yesterday. The stock soared as high as 40% in its first day of trading.
General Fusion is developing an experimental approach to nuclear fusion that essentially replicates the process that powers the sun.
The company, which is still pre-revenue and pre-commercialization, says its access to public investors will help it win the race to commercialize the still largely unproven technology.
Catch-up: Nuclear fusion has seen renewed interest over the past year, with companies in the sector raising US$2.6 billion in 2025. The federal government included support for fusion development in its recently released nuclear energy strategy (General Fusion has already received $100 million in government funding).
Why it matters: If it can become commercially viable (which is still a big if), nuclear fusion could provide an abundance of clean, cheap electricity that would help meet our soaring demand for power.
With its new funding, General Fusion says it will be able to complete development on its fusion demonstration device. The short-term goal is to reach the point where the machine can produce more energy than it uses.
That demo device isn’t designed to generate electricity, but if it can achieve the energy break-even point, it will provide the foundation for an operational fusion reactor, which the company claims could be running by 2035.
Our take: If nuclear fusion looks viable at scale, the big tech companies that are racing to build power-hungry AI data centres will likely start throwing serious money at the sector.—LA
