Pacific Fusion

Pacific Fusion is a fusion energy company founded in 2023 and headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area (building in Fremont, CA), with additional operations in New Mexico. The company is developing a pulsed magnetic inertial confinement fusion (ICF) system-an approach in which powerful, fast-rising electrical current pulses magnetically squeeze and heat small, centimeter-scale fuel containers filled with deuterium-tritium, causing the fuel to fuse and release massive energy. This process is repeated cyclically, like pistons in an engine. Pacific Fusion's system is designed around three modular components: a fast electric pulser built from thousands of identical, mass-manufacturable "brick" units (two capacitors and a switch), a compact meter-scale fusion chamber, and the tiny replaceable fuel targets. The company's target milestone is achieving net facility gain-more fusion energy output than total stored energy input-by 2030, with a Demonstration System to be built in New Mexico.

Pacific Fusion's approach builds directly on landmark breakthroughs from US national laboratories: the 2022 laser-driven ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF), record-setting pulsed magnetic fusion performance on Sandia's Z Machine, and the invention of the Impedance-Matched Marx Generator (IMG), a key advance in efficient pulsed-power generation. The company has formalized Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) with both Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and has partnered with General Atomics for target development. In February 2026, Pacific Fusion published breakthrough experimental results from the Z Machine, demonstrating simplified, low-cost fusion targets that self-pre-magnetize without external hardware-a major step toward economically viable fusion. The company's advanced simulation tools are developed in collaboration with the Flash Center at the University of Rochester.

Pacific Fusion is critically important to the US energy supply chain because it represents one of the most credibly funded and technically grounded private fusion ventures to date. Its modular, manufacturable architecture is specifically designed to avoid exotic or scarce materials, simplifying domestic supply chains and enabling scalable production. The company's milestone-based funding structure-more than $900M committed upfront by leading venture investors-provides an unprecedented runway for long-duration deep-tech development. If successful, Pacific Fusion's commercial fusion plants could supply firm, carbon-free power to cities and industries across the US by the mid-2030s, fundamentally reshaping the domestic electricity generation landscape and reducing dependence on fossil fuels.