On January 12th, Startorus Fusion successfully completed its Series A financing round, securing RMB 1 billion in funding. This round of financing was led by Shanghai STVC Group and Shanghai Future Industry Fund, both under the umbrella of Shanghai State-owned Capital Investment, as well as Shanghai CCI Investment Co., Ltd. and JIADING VENTURE CAPITAL as co-lead investors. A consortium of institutional and individual investors including Bank of China Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd., Ningbo Xichen Private Fund Management Co., Ltd., SUMMITVIEW CAPITAL, Longge Technology, Feitu Venture Investment, SAIC Motor Financial Holdings Co., Ltd., Yankuang Energy Group Company Limited (a subsidiary of Shandong Energy Group CO..LTD.), CIMC Safeway Technologies Co., Ltd., Sunrise Capital Management Co., Ltd. , HUA CAPITAL, Shenwan Hongyuan Securities Co., Ltd., BEFORE CAPITAL and Nebula Asset Management Limited also participated in the investment. The lead investor in the company’s Pre-A round, the Intellectual Property Fund under Shanghai STVC Group, continued to follow the lead. The financing will be used to fully advance the construction of the next-generation fusion apparatus. The company plans to complete engineering verification by around 2028, initiate the construction of a commercial demonstration reactor, and build a fusion demonstration reactor capable of generating electricity by around 2032.
Accelerating Iteration of Original Technological Path, Promising Prospects for Commercial Application
Startorus Fusion has adopted a domestically original and globally unique technological route, specifically a compact repetitive reconnection controlled fusion technology solution characterized by multi-stroke repetitive operation and plasma self-magnetic field reconnection heating, based on a spherical tokamak with high-temperature superconducting strong magnetic fields. Compared with traditional tokamak fusion reactors, this solution features a compact size and simplified structure, which can significantly reduce the construction costs of fusion reactors. Not only is the solution applicable to large-scale fusion power stations and distributed power stations, but its compact and simplified structure also enables its potential application in scenarios with high integration requirements, such as offshore/deep-sea operation platforms and power systems of large ships. Boasting technical advantages including high energy density, environmental friendliness and intrinsic reaction self-limitation, it is adaptable to a wide range of scenarios and boasts broad commercialization prospects.
Since its establishment, Startorus Fusion has achieved major breakthroughs in multiple core technology fields related to spherical tokamak fusion reactors. In collaboration with Tsinghua University, the company built the SUNIST-2 (the No. 0 Experimental Apparatus) in only 279 days and successfully achieved Ohmic discharge to obtain the first plasma, setting a new world record for the construction of similar apparatus. It has rapidly verified its original repetitive reconnection technology solution, with plasma temperature exceeding 17 million degrees Celsius. The company has extensively and in-depth integrated AI technology into apparatus monitoring, safety early warning, plasma diagnosis and rapid equilibrium inversion, and realized high-quality real-time control of plasma with multiple parameters based on AI. It took the lead in designing and constructing NTST, the world’s first native negative triangularity spherical tokamak apparatus, which can explore an unprecedented parameter range for tokamaks and provide potential innovative solutions for future fusion reactors. In the field of high-temperature superconducting magnets, the company has completed the entire technological process for developing full-size magnet coils at the fusion grade, and finished the design, manufacturing and test verification of multiple key magnets and components.
In the meantime, the company has also developed and refined a wide array of peripheral technologies related to fusion reactors, with productization as the delivery requirement for all internal projects, actively promoting the transformation of technological achievements into commercial products. To date, it has built a comprehensive product line of signal conditioning products, including high-bandwidth isolation amplifiers and analog integrators. Its superconducting collector (EPIC) and single-channel data collector (CoaxLink Nano) enable precise testing and flexible deployment under extreme multi-physics conditions, laying a solid and reliable data foundation for digital fusion reactors and AI-based control systems. The poloidal magnet pulsed power supply, together with the general-purpose pulsed power supply module (IVCube), forms a complete pulsed power supply solution that supports mass deployment and complex control, providing cost-effective power support for fusion apparatus. In addition to supporting fusion research, the self-developed in-situ surface analysis system (LIBS) and electrostatic probe drive system have garnered extensive attention and secured multiple cooperation agreements in such fields as nuclear power, aerospace and high-energy physics. The company’s full-technology-stack capabilities in high-temperature superconducting magnets have also generated spillover effects, leading to a number of development and processing agreements with clients.
Rooted in Tsinghua DNA, A Hardcore Team Forges Core Competitiveness
Spin-off from a technology achievement transformation project of Tsinghua University, Startorus Fusion has a core team all graduated from the Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University. With over 20 years of intensive experience in the fusion field, they are China’s first research team dedicated to spherical tokamak studies.Leveraging Tsinghua University’s scientific research heritage and talent advantages, the company has continued to bring together top-tier academic expertise.
In recent years, the R&D team has rapidly expanded from its initial size of around 10 members to over 140, with more than 70% holding master’s or doctoral degrees. It has thus built a composite talent pool covering the entire fusion industry chain, boasting both strong scientific research capabilities and solid engineering practice experience. Centered on Tsinghua’s research strengths, this team has sustained its leading edge in key fusion technology areas by virtue of profound academic foundations and extensive engineering experience.
After years of refinement and iteration, the company has initially developed the large-scale engineering management capabilities required for fusion energy development. Currently, the team is methodically advancing three major tasks simultaneously: operating the generation (SUNIST-2), constructing the generation (NTST), and developing the generation (CTRFR-1), thus pushing forward fusion energy development with exceptional efficiency and maximum speed.
Integrated into Shanghai’s Industrial Layout, Government-Enterprise Collaboration Ushered in a New Chapter for Fusion Energy
This round of financing led by Shanghai State-owned Capital Investment marks Startorus Fusion’s official integration into Shanghai’s future industrial layout. Leveraging the robust support of Shanghai’s “4+3” advanced nuclear energy industrial framework, the company will accelerate the engineering breakthroughs of core technologies for spherical tokamak fusion reactors. Under Shanghai’s innovation mechanism featuring “government guidance plus market-driven impetus”, Startorus Fusion will deeply collaborate with regional industrial clusters, link up with world-class scientific research resources, and carry out extensive cooperation with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, so as to achieve leapfrog development from laboratory R&D to commercialization.
In the meantime, Startorus Fusion has entered into an important strategic cooperation with the government of Jiading District, Shanghai, to jointly advance the R&D and industrialization process of the CTRFR-1 fusion apparatus. According to the agreement, the company will establish an R&D center and an experimental base in Jiading, focusing on the engineering verification of fusion technologies and promoting the breakthroughs of core technologies such as high-temperature superconducting magnets and plasma control. This cooperation will give full play to the advantages of government-enterprise collaboration: the Jiading District Government will provide comprehensive guarantees in terms of land, funding, talent and policies; Startorus Fusion, relying on its own technological advantages, will actively play the role of the “chain leader” in the industrial chain and unite upstream and downstream enterprises to build a fusion energy industrial cluster.
Covering an area of about 25 acres with a total construction area of 50000 square meters, Startorus Fusion’s Shanghai Experimental Base is planned to construct three major functional sections: a hall placing apparatus, a research plant, and a supporting service area. It is expected to be completed and put into use in 2027. Upon completion, it will become a leading platform for fusion energy research and engineering verification in China.
In addition, this round of financing of Startorus Fusion has also received strong support from the Shanghai Institute of Sci-Tech Innovation Finance and the Shanghai Angel Investors Association. As ecological partners, both institutions stated that in the subsequent process of Startorus Fusion’s integration into Shanghai’s future industrial development, they will continue to closely coordinate and provide continuous empowerment as always, jointly build an early-stage sci-tech innovation ecosystem centered on the fusion industry, cultivate and create benchmark projects, and support the construction of Shanghai’s sci-tech innovation center.
Investors’ Perspectives
Shanghai STVC Group stated: The Group has long focused on investments in hard-core technologies and future industries. Following the lead investment in Startorus Fusion by our affiliated Intellectual Property Fund in 2024, the Group once again led the investment in this round and facilitated the company’s landing in Shanghai. Throughout this process, we have witnessed Startorus Fusion gradually grow into a leading enterprise in China’s controllable nuclear fusion sector, equipped with full-stack independent R&D capabilities, engineering implementation capacity and rapid iteration prowess. This has further strengthened our resolve to support the company in overcoming the technological bottlenecks in developing the “artificial sun” technology. Going forward, Shanghai STVC Group will fully leverage its empowering strengths as a provider of “patient capital, long-term capital and strategic capital” as well as its industrial synergy capabilities. We will join hands with Startorus Fusion and industrial chain partners to accelerate the process of advancing fusion energy from “scientific experiments” to “commercial applications”, and jointly build Shanghai into a global highland for advanced energy industries.
SAIC Motor Financial Holdings Co., Ltd., the investment arm of Shanghai CCI Investment Co., stated: As the market-oriented lead investor in the company’s Series A financing round, we are highly optimistic about the trillion-yuan-scale track development prospects of controllable nuclear fusion as a strategic emerging industry under the country’s 15th Five-Year Plan. Relying on its outstanding technological advantages in the high-temperature superconducting strong-magnetic-field spherical tokamak technology route and the profound 20-plus-year accumulation of the full-fledged R&D team from Tsinghua University in the nuclear fusion field, Startorus Fusion has successfully built and verified multiple fusion experimental apparatus, with its core indicators reaching the domestic leading and international advanced level. Shanghai CCI Investment Co. will fully mobilize the overall resources of its system to provide comprehensive industrial empowerment for Startorus Fusion and assist the company in accelerating the multi-scenario commercialization of compact fusion apparatus.
JIADING VENTURE CAPITAL commented: As the sci-tech investment platform of Jiading District, we carry out investment layout centering on Jiading’s “3+3+1” key industries, among which the future energy industry is one of our key focus areas. The team of Startorus Fusion has demonstrated profound technological accumulation, clear engineering pathways and strong execution capabilities in the field of controllable nuclear fusion, and has gradually grown into a leading enterprise in China’s fusion commercialization track. Currently, Jiading District is striving to build a “Fusion Energy Town”, and the landing of Startorus Fusion is a key step for us to construct the industrial ecosystem. Going forward, we will continue to support and serve the enterprise to accelerate its technological breakthroughs and industrialization process.
SUMMITVIEW CAPITAL noted: As a “Tsinghua Solution” in the nuclear fusion field, Startorus Fusion has innovatively proposed a technological solution featuring “magnetic reconnection heating + negative triangular configuration + spherical tokamak”, which is expected to achieve better plasma confinement performance and reduce the construction cost of fusion apparatus. We anticipate and believe that after completing the Series A financing and landing in Shanghai, Startorus Fusion will enter a new stage of development and achieve more inspiring results.
HUA CAPITAL stated: Startorus Fusion is an important layout of HUA CAPITAL in the controllable nuclear fusion track. The company has adopted an innovative technological route of “spherical tokamak + magnetic reconnection”, which significantly improves economic efficiency and commercial feasibility. Its core team is entirely composed of members from the Department of Engineering Physics of Tsinghua University, boasting first-class domestic nuclear fusion theoretical expertise and strong engineering execution capabilities, thus forming a powerful synergy of “industry-university-research integration”. Chen Yu, the project leader of HUA CAPITAL, believes that Startorus Fusion is expected to become the “SpaceX of China’s energy sector” and looks forward to its emergence as a winner in the race to reshape the global energy landscape.
