The FIA's 2026 industry report counts a record $4.48B raised by 56 fusion companies in the 12 months to July — up 69% on 2025 — taking cumulative funding to $14.24B (7x since 2021), with 16,000+ employed and all five $1B+ raisers US-based.
Proxima Fusion raised €411M at a €2.4B valuation, led by XTX Ventures and East X Ventures with Google (its first European fusion bet) and RWE (€25M) as strategic investors — funding the Alpha net-energy stellarator at Gundremmingen.
Proxima Fusion / RWE / Bavaria / Max Planck IPP — Proxima Fusion, RWE, the Free State of Bavaria and Max Planck IPP signed an MOU to build Europe's first commercial stellarator fusion plant. It starts with 'Alpha', a €2B (~$2.3B) demonstration stellarator in Garching aiming to be the first stellarator to reach net energy gain (Q>1) in the 2030s; a commercial 'Stellaris' plant would follow at RWE's decommissioning Gundremmingen nuclear site. IPP leads physics, Proxima engineering, RWE plant construction.