General Fusion Group Ltd. Cl A

General Fusion surged 13% in Thursday's trading after announcing a world-first result on its path to commercial fusion power. The company said its large-scale demonstration machine heated plasma to more than 12M degrees Celsius, or more than one kiloelectron unit, using its Magnetized Target Fusion low-speed compression approach. General Fusion said the result is the first of three milestones on its path to commercialization, with the next two hurdles consisting of heating electrons to 10 kiloelectron volts, followed by reaching net fusion energy within the superheated plasma. The company said the result marks a major step forward on its plan to deliver reliable baseload, economical clean power from fusion energy, and it is targeting the start of operations at a commercial fusion plant by around 2035.

General Fusion Group Ltd. said its Lawson Machine 26 demonstration machine has become the first fusion machine in the world to heat plasma to more than 12 million degrees Celsius, or more than 1 keV, using practical low-speed compression. The company said only a few fusion companies have ever reached 1 keV, all using other approaches, and that its Magnetized Target Fusion technology squeezes plasma with a metal wall over milliseconds rather than with superconducting magnets or high-powered lasers. Thomson scattering measured with the UK Atomic Energy Authority recorded approximately 1.1 keV just prior to peak compression, while absolute extreme ultraviolet data recorded approximately 1.2 keV at peak compression, and ions heated up to twofold above starting ion temperature. The result achieves the first of three key technical milestones for LM26, with machine upgrades underway to reach the second target of 10 keV, roughly 100 million degrees Celsius, followed by the Lawson criterion targeted by the end of 2028 and a first-of-a-kind plant around 2035. Chief Executive Officer Greg Twinney said the team squeezed a plasma shaped like a cored apple and it stayed alive while being squeezed and heated to more than 12 million degrees.

Global private investment in nuclear fusion hit a record $4.48 billion in 2025, up 69% from a year earlier, as major energy companies like Eni, Equinor, Chevron, Shell, and Cenovus ramp up their commitments. Eni plans to deploy a commercial fusion power plant in Europe by the early 2040s, building on its investment in Commonwealth Fusion Systems and a $1 billion agreement to buy electricity from the startup's first U.S. plant. Eni is also forming a joint venture with the UK Atomic Energy Authority to develop fuel systems for fusion reactors, targeting a large-scale tritium fuel-cycle facility by 2028. Commonwealth Fusion Systems raised another $1 billion in July, bringing its total funding to $4 billion, and its planned 400-MW ARC facility in Virginia is the first fusion project to apply for grid interconnection. Chevron has backed TAE Technologies and Zap Energy, while Shell invested in Zap's $130 million Series D round, and Cenovus's early bet on General Fusion is moving toward a Nasdaq listing.

General Fusion Group Ltd. has become the first publicly listed fusion energy company to trade on a major exchange, debuting on the Nasdaq under the ticker GFUZ. The stock rallied sharply on its first day, with intraday gains approaching 30% and a close up roughly 21%. The Vancouver-based company, backed by Jeff Bezos and Tobias Lütke, uses a distinctive Magnetized Target Fusion approach that relies on mechanical compression rather than superconducting magnets or lasers. It entered public markets with approximately US$150 million in cash to fund its Lawson program through key technical milestones targeted through 2028, including heating plasma to 10 keV and reaching the Lawson criterion. The listing arrives amid surging electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence, though the company does not expect a first-of-a-kind plant until approximately 2035.

General Fusion has completed its business combination with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III, a special purpose acquisition company, and will begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker GFUZ on July 13, 2026. The company enters the public markets with approximately US$150 million in cash, including net proceeds from a private placement and trust capital, to advance its Magnetized Target Fusion technology. The funding is expected to support the Lawson program through key technical milestones targeted for completion in 2028, aiming to demonstrate and de-risk the technology in a commercially relevant way. General Fusion currently operates Lawson Machine 26, the first MTF demonstration machine built at a commercially relevant scale, designed to achieve critical fusion milestones including plasma heating to 10 keV and ultimately the Lawson criterion.