Avalanche Energy raised $29 million to build fusion reactors you could lift with two hands. The Redmond startup's devices are roughly five inches in diameter, using electrostatic confinement instead of building-sized magnets or laser arrays.
The pitch: Skip the grid entirely. While Commonwealth Fusion Systems and others chase utility-scale power with tokamaks requiring billions in capital, Avalanche targets defense, underwater vehicles, and remote industrial sites. Output goal is 5-15 kilowatts per cell, stackable for larger applications. Think mobile power, not replacing coal plants.
The technology uses what Avalanche calls "Orbitron" electrostatic ion confinement. High voltage (they've hit 300kV recently, up from 200kV in 2024) draws plasma particles into tight orbits around an electrode until they collide and fuse. The approach uses proton-boron fusion, which produces fewer neutrons than conventional deuterium-tritium reactions. Parts come from commercial suppliers, including microwave magnetrons. Weekly testing cycles versus years for large-scale projects.
This is Avalanche's second raise. They previously closed a $40 million Series A led by Lowercarbon Capital, with Founders Fund and Toyota Ventures participating. Total raised is north of $70 million, though the company hasn't disclosed the latest round's lead investor.
The strategy sidesteps a hard truth about fusion economics: Grid power is a commodity business with razor-thin margins. Even if large-scale fusion works technically, it competes with falling solar and wind costs. Avalanche is betting niche, high-value applications justify premium pricing while the technology matures.
Skepticism remains warranted. Electrostatic fusion has disappointed before, and no fusion approach has achieved sustained net energy gain at commercial scale. The broader fusion sector has pulled in over $6 billion in private funding, but timelines keep slipping. Commonwealth Fusion and Helion both pushed commercialization targets.
What's genuinely different: Avalanche can afford to iterate fast because they're not building ITER-scale infrastructure. Whether fast iteration overcomes fundamental physics constraints, we'll see. The company is testing at FusionWERX facilities and claims the highest electrostatic voltage achieved since 2006.
For enterprise tech leaders: This isn't about your data center power in the next decade. But if you're running remote operations or have defense contracts, micro-fusion for specialized applications might arrive before grid-scale does.