Google backs Europe's fusion ambitions with €411 million bet on startup

Google has joined a €411 million ($468 million) funding round for Germany-based Proxima Fusion, boosting the company's efforts to develop Europe's first commercial fusion power plant.

The investment values Proxima Fusion at $2.7 billion and highlights Google's continued interest in fusion as a potential source of abundant, carbon-free energy. The financing round was led by XTX Ventures and East X Ventures, with German utility RWE and Google participating as strategic investors. Venture capital firms including Plural, UVC Partners, Balderton and Cherry Ventures also took part, CNBS writes. 

Nuclear fusion generates energy by combining two hydrogen atoms to form one helium atom, releasing vast amounts of energy. Unlike conventional nuclear power plants, which rely on nuclear fission by splitting atoms, fusion has yet to be deployed commercially due to significant technical challenges.

Proxima is developing stellarator fusion technology, one of several approaches to achieving commercial fusion power. The company aims to have a fusion demonstrator — a proof-of-concept facility ahead of a commercial power plant — operating in the early 2030s, with its first commercial plant targeted for the latter part of the decade.

“Europe is racing with the United States and China to get to the first fusion power plant,” Francesco Sciortino, cofounder and CEO, said in a statement.

“Proxima’s financing demonstrates that Europe can not only invent breakthrough technologies, but also build globally competitive companies around them,” he added.

“Investors recognise both the urgency and the opportunity of what we’re doing and are backing us to develop a generational energy technology company.”

The company said the new funding will be used to expand production of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables and magnets, develop engineering and manufacturing systems for stellarators, and recruit additional engineering, manufacturing and operations staff.

Although Proxima is Europe's best-funded fusion startup, it still trails major U.S. rivals. Commonwealth Fusion Systems has raised a total of $2.9 billion, including an $863 million funding round last August, while Sam Altman-backed Helion Energy has secured $1.5 billion in total funding after raising $465 million last month.

Google is also an investor in Commonwealth Fusion Systems and signed an offtake agreement with the company in June 2025 for electricity from its first commercial fusion power plant once it becomes operational.

In a blog post announcing that agreement, Google said: “Fusion holds huge potential as an energy source of the future: it’s clean, abundant and inherently safe, and it can be built just about anywhere.”

The company also acknowledged the technological challenges facing the sector, adding that while fusion could change the world, commercialising the technology is “immensely challenging, and success is not guaranteed.”

By Sabina Mammadli