Pacific Fusion is taking the inertial route to fusion rather than the magnetic one: instead of holding plasma in a magnetic bottle, it crushes a small capsule of deuterium-tritium fuel with an enormous, extremely fast electrical pulse.
Latest update Sep 16, 2026
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The company's distinguishing technology is the impedance-matched Marx generator, a pulser architecture that is simpler and cheaper than the systems used at national laboratories, and its plan is to gang 156 production-scale pulser modules into a Demonstration System designed to reach net facility gain - more fusion energy out than the total energy stored in the machine - by 2030. Founded in 2023 by Eric Lander, Keith LeChien, Will Regan, Carrie von Muench and Leland Ellison, it launched publicly in October 2024 with a roughly $900M Series A led by General Catalyst that is released in tranches against technical milestones; the round has since passed $1B as those milestones cleared. In June 2026 a scaled module prototype delivered more than 440 gigawatts at about 1.1 megavolts in an 80-nanosecond pulse, and in July 2026 the Sirius prototype at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory passed 3,000 full-power shots at 95% energy efficiency. Pacific Fusion broke ground on its $1B, roughly 225,000-square-foot research and manufacturing campus at Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on August 25, 2026 - the National Nuclear Security Administration signed a fusion-research MOU with the company the same day - and Nature reporters visiting the nearby Los Lunas build center that month found two of the more than 150 full-scale pulser modules the Demonstration System needs already completed. The Users Program FAQ, still current as of September 2026, says Demonstration System commissioning is expected to begin in 2028, with the first external-user campaigns in 2029 after a 2027 call for proposals. The machine is designed to produce more than 100 megajoules of fusion output per pulse, about 10 times NIF's record output.
users.pacificfusion.comUpdated Sep 16, 2026
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2026-2027
Complete and test full-scale pulser modules, each roughly 40x the size of Sirius and 3x the June 2026 scaled prototype, to prove the unit that will be manufactured 156 times over for the Demonstration System. Nature reporters visiting the Los Lunas build center in August 2026 found two of the more than 150 full-scale modules already completed. Re-verified as of September 16, 2026: company updates through September 15 still describe demonstrating a full-scale pulser module as the next major technical checkpoint; no public full-scale module test result has been posted.
2026-2030
Manufacture and assemble all 156 production-scale pulser modules at the New Mexico campus, supported by component production at the Los Lunas build center, and integrate them with the target chamber and diagnostics. Ground was broken August 25, 2026; Users Program FAQ still dates commissioning to 2028.
2027-2029
Pacific Fusion launched the Users Program on March 4, 2026 with a call for Expressions of Interest from academia, national labs, government and industry; submissions are now closed. The Users Program FAQ, still current as of September 16, 2026, keeps the next phase as a detailed Call for Proposals in 2027, with Demonstration System commissioning expected to begin in 2028 and the first external-user campaigns anticipated in 2029.
2028
After manufacturing and assembling the 156-module Demonstration System at Mesa del Sol, Pacific Fusion's Users Program FAQ, still current as of September 16, 2026, says commissioning is expected to begin in 2028, ahead of first external-user campaigns in 2029 and the 2030 net-facility-gain target. Watch whether that 2028 window holds as full-scale pulser-module testing proceeds.
2030
Fire the Demonstration System and produce more fusion energy than the total energy stored in the facility - a stricter bar than scientific breakeven and the result that would put pulser-driven inertial fusion on a commercial footing. Re-verified September 16, 2026: the 2030 target is unchanged on the company locations page, Users Program FAQ, and August groundbreaking coverage.
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Pacific Fusion held a groundbreaking ceremony on August 25 for its $1 billion research and manufacturing campus at Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque, which will house the Demonstration System the company is targeting for net facility gain by 2030. The event drew board chairman Eric Schmidt, US Senators Martin Heinrich and John Hickenlooper, NNSA administrator Brandon Williams and Sandia National Laboratories director Laura McGill, with the project expected to create about 200 permanent jobs.
Pacific Fusion and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported that Sirius, their four-stage impedance-matched Marx generator prototype, has completed 3,000 full-power shots, each delivering 60 gigawatts in a 100-nanosecond pulse at 95% energy efficiency. The reliability campaign provides the empirical base for the much larger 156-module Demonstration System Pacific Fusion is targeting for net facility gain by 2030.
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Pacific Fusion's first-of-a-kind machine, to be assembled at the $1B Mesa del Sol campus in Albuquerque from 156 production-scale pulser modules (each 32 circular stages ringed with 10 bricks). It is designed to reach net facility gain, producing more fusion energy than the total energy stored in the system, and to do it at roughly 100x the facility gain of the National Ignition Facility for about a tenth of the cost.
The repeating building block of the Demonstration System: an impedance-matched Marx generator that stacks capacitor-and-switch 'bricks' into stages and synchronizes them into a single ultra-fast, high-current pulse. Getting one module right and then manufacturing it 156 times is the company's whole scaling strategy.
The four-stage impedance-matched Marx generator prototype built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under a cooperative research agreement. Sirius synchronizes electromagnetic waves onto a transmission line in a single step, which is what makes the architecture simpler and more efficient than conventional pulsed-power systems, and it is the machine that generated the empirical data validating Pacific Fusion's simulations.
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The Los Lunas, New Mexico build center employed 73 as of the August 2026 Albuquerque groundbreaking (95% hired in-state); the Mesa del Sol campus is expected to support about 200 permanent jobs once complete. Careers listings in September 2026 still show active hiring in Fremont, San Leandro, Los Lunas, and Albuquerque.
156 pulser modules, net facility gain targeted by 2030; 2 full-scale modules completed as of August 2026
$1B, ~225,000 sq ft at Mesa del Sol, Albuquerque; ~200 permanent jobs; Los Lunas build center employed 73 as of August 2026 groundbreaking; groundbreaking held August 25, 2026
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Operating status
Pre-revenue
Development stage. Pulser modules are being assembled and tested at the Bay Area R&D campuses, the Sirius prototype at Lawrence Livermore has passed 3,000 full-power shots, and the June 2026 scaled module prototype validated the architecture at roughly one third of full module scale. The company broke ground on its Albuquerque campus on August 25, 2026, formally starting construction of the roughly 225,000-square-foot site that will host the 156-module Demonstration System (net facility gain targeted by 2030). The Users Program FAQ, still current as of September 16, 2026, says commissioning is expected to begin in 2028, with first external-user campaigns in 2029. Two of the more than 150 full-scale production modules were already complete as of August 2026 at the Los Lunas build center, which employed 73 people at groundbreaking. The same day as groundbreaking, Pacific Fusion signed a fusion-research MOU with the NNSA covering high-yield fusion and high-energy-density science. The next declared technical checkpoint remains demonstrating a full-scale pulser module. The Demonstration System is explicitly not a power plant.
Milestone-tranched venture capital
A Series A led by General Catalyst that now exceeds $1B, released against pre-agreed technical milestones rather than in a lump sum, which the company says lets the team stay on engineering rather than continuous fundraising.
National laboratory partnerships
Cooperative research and development agreements with Sandia National Laboratories (Z Pulsed Power Facility, December 2024) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (January 2025), plus an April 2025 partnership with General Atomics on inertial fusion energy, giving Pacific Fusion access to facilities and expertise it would otherwise have to build.
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How past announced dates turned out.
1/1announced date hit on time
Break ground on the Albuquerque campus
Target August 2026 · Resolved Aug 25, 2026
Pacific Fusion held a groundbreaking ceremony for its $1B Mesa del Sol research and manufacturing campus in Albuquerque on August 25, 2026, formally starting construction of the site that will house the Demonstration System; the NNSA signed a fusion-research MOU with the company the same day.
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2026
NNSA signs fusion research MOU with Pacific Fusion
On the same day as the Albuquerque groundbreaking, August 25, 2026, the National Nuclear Security Administration signs a memorandum of understanding with Pacific Fusion covering collaboration on high-yield fusion, high-energy-density science and related technical areas - research that could also inform science-based stockpile stewardship without underground nuclear testing.
Groundbreaking on the $1B Albuquerque campus
Pacific Fusion holds a groundbreaking ceremony on August 25, 2026 for its $1B research and manufacturing campus at Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque, formally starting construction on the site that will house the Demonstration System. The event draws board chairman Eric Schmidt, US Senators Martin Heinrich and John Hickenlooper, NNSA administrator Brandon Williams and Sandia National Laboratories director Laura McGill.
Josh Tech named head of New Mexico operations
Pacific Fusion names Josh Tech, a former Tesla manager and most recently COO of REE Automotive, to lead New Mexico operations and the Mesa del Sol campus build-out.
Users Program opens to outside researchers
On March 4, 2026 Pacific Fusion launches the Pacific Fusion Users Program, opening a call for Expressions of Interest from academia, national laboratories, government and industry ahead of a 2027 detailed-proposal call and a planned 2029 start for the first external-user experiments on the Demonstration System.
Sirius passes 3,000 full-power shots at Livermore
On July 16-17, 2026 Pacific Fusion and Lawrence Livermore report that Sirius, the four-stage impedance-matched Marx generator prototype built under their CRADA, has completed 3,000 full-power shots, delivering 60 gigawatts in a 100-nanosecond pulse at 95% energy efficiency. The campaign is the empirical base for the simulation models behind the far larger Demonstration System.
Scaled pulser prototype hits 440 GW, unlocking more Series A
On June 2, 2026 the company reports that a scaled module prototype - nine stages of 90 bricks, about one third of a full module - delivered more than 440 gigawatts of peak power at roughly 1.1 megavolts in an 80-nanosecond pulse, with a low-cost trigger system synchronizing every stage into a single coherent pulse. The result unlocked a further tranche of the Series A, taking the round past $1B.
Simplified fusion target validated on Sandia's Z machine
On February 5, 2026 Pacific Fusion reports results from experiments at Sandia's Z Pulsed Power Facility showing that a much simpler target - plastic wrapped in aluminium, letting the magnetic field diffuse in to pre-magnetize the fuel - can work in place of more complex designs, removing external laser and magnet hardware and cutting the cost and maintenance burden of a system that has to fire repeatedly.
2025
$1B New Mexico campus announced
On September 26, 2025 New Mexico's governor announces Pacific Fusion's $1B research and manufacturing campus at Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque, which will house the Demonstration System and is expected to create about 200 permanent jobs and roughly 1,000 construction jobs. A build center in Los Lunas producing components for the system opens that December.
2025
Simulation tools validated in four peer-reviewed papers
In September 2025 Pacific Fusion publishes four peer-reviewed papers in Physics of Plasmas validating its simulation stack against six benchmarks spanning hydrodynamic instabilities, fuel compression, confinement and ignition-scale inertial fusion target modelling - the first time a private fusion company has published validation across all of those processes.
CRADA with Lawrence Livermore and the AMPS design paper
Adds a January 2025 cooperative agreement with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, then in April 2025 publishes its AMPS framework (affordable, manageable, practical, scalable) describing a demonstration system designed for 100x higher facility gain at 10x lower cost than the National Ignition Facility - what the company calls a 1,000-fold leap in practical fusion performance. A partnership with General Atomics follows the same month.
2024
CRADA with Sandia National Laboratories
Signs a cooperative research and development agreement with Sandia National Laboratories in December 2024, giving it access to the Z Pulsed Power Facility, the world's most powerful pulsed-power machine and the reference point for magnetically driven inertial fusion.
Public launch with ~$900M Series A
The company emerges from stealth on October 25, 2024 with a roughly $900M Series A led by General Catalyst, structured to release capital in tranches as technical milestones are met. Backers include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Ken Griffin, Patrick Collison, John Doerr and Mustafa Suleyman; Patrick Collison, Hemant Taneja and Eric Schmidt join the board.
2023
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$1.9Bdisclosed across 2 rounds with a stated amount
