General Fusion Soars in Debut as First Publicly Traded Fusion Company

General Fusion began trading on the Nasdaq today under the ticker GFUZ, becoming the first publicly listed fusion power company, beating competitor and Trump-backed TAE Technologies by several months. Investors seemed to want in. The stock rallied as trading began Monday and is now up 40% from $12.85 as of 12:50 p.m.

ET. General Fusion announced in January that it would merge with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III, and the transaction was completed last week.

Without redemptions, the fusion power company could have added as much as $230 million to its balance sheet. But most de-SPAC deals see a wave of redemptions before the merger completes. This one is no exception, and while the company hasn’t disclosed the exact amount yet, a report in the Globe and Mail estimates that General Fusion might receive less than $30 million after redemptions and fees.

Alongside the de-SPAC, General Fusion also raised $108 million from private investors. Altogether, the company says it holds about $150 million in cash. Before the reverse merger was announced, General Fusion was running short on cash and struggling to raise more.

The company had reportedly been attempting to raise $125 million. But by May 2025, it hadn’t materialized, and General Fusion laid off at least 25% of its employees. Three months later, the company convinced existing investors to put in another $22 million in what was reportedly a “pay to play” round.

That round gave General Fusion some breathing room. But fusion power is an expensive business, and the company was soon looking for more funding, which culminated in the reverse merger announced in January. Founded in 2002, General Fusion is one of the oldest fusion power companies around.

Over the years, it has raised over $600 million from private investors. The company’s approach to fusion power, known as magnetized target fusion, uses electromagnetic fields to create magnetized plasma, a soup of superheated particles, inside a chamber lined with liquid lithium. Once the plasma is formed, it will use rings of pistons to compress liquid lithium around the fusion fuel until the atoms within fuse and release energy.

Previously, the company said it would use steam to drive the pistons, though today it doesn’t specify, merely saying that “synchronized mechanical drivers” will force the lithium blanket inward around the plasma. The company had hoped to use its LM26 device to hit a milestone known as breakeven, where a fusion reaction releases more energy than was required to ignite it, sometime this year. Its funding woes have pushed the timeline back, though, likely to 2028 or later.

General Fusion says it is aiming to turn on its first power plant “by approximately 2035.” Why this matters: General Fusion's successful debut as a publicly traded company could have significant implications for the fusion power industry. As the first publicly listed fusion company, General Fusion sets a precedent for other companies in the sector, potentially paving the way for increased investment and innovation. The company's approach to fusion power, magnetized target fusion, shows promise, but the delayed timeline for achieving breakeven and commercialization raises questions about the scalability and cost-effectiveness of fusion power.