Google and RWE Back German Nuclear Startup Proxima Fusion at €2.4 Billion Valuation

Article content

(Bloomberg) — German startup Proxima Fusion has raised €411 million ($469 million) from a range of investors, including national energy firm RWE AG and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, to develop a nuclear fusion plant it hopes will be operational in the 2030s. 

Article content

XTX Ventures, the investment arm from Alex Gerko’s algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets Ltd, led the financing round with London-based firm East X Ventures. The deal gives the three year-old energy firm a valuation of €2.4 billion, Proxima Fusion said on Tuesday. 

Article content

Article content

Article content

It’s a key part of the company’s plans to build an energy facility on a decommissioned RWE nuclear power site in Bavaria. In February, Proxima Fusion announced that the demonstrator for this plant, called Alpha, would cost €2 billion, with the company pledging to cover a fifth of the costs and the federal state of Bavaria committing a similar amount.

Article content

Article content

Francesco Sciortino, Proxima Fusion’s chief executive, said his Munich-based startup expects the remainder of the funds to come from Germany’s federal government and the European Union. “We’ve done what we promised to do,” he said in an interview. “Obviously, we think this a historic opportunity for Germany, for Europe.”

Article content

Germany turned against nuclear power following the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, shutting down the final German reactors by 2023. Nuclear fusion, which promises to harness the same process that powers the sun to offer abundant, emissions-free electricity, remains an experimental technology. There are currently no commercial fusion plants.

Article content

Yet the field is drawing increased interest as tech companies scour the globe for future sources to power data centers. In 2025, Google agreed to purchase 200 megawatts of power from Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an American company developing fusion energy that Google has backed. 

Article content

Article content

The internet giant joined as a strategic investor in Proxima Fusion, but the companies don’t have any set plans around data centers, according to Sciortino. He declined to say how much Google or RWE invested. 

Article content

He said around €150 million of the newest financing round came from its two investment leads, while existing investors added a similar amount. 

Article content

Proxima Fusion last raised funds in 2025, in a €130 million round, and said it has secured more than €650 million to date, including €95 million in public grants. KfW Capital, an investment division of Germany’s state bank, and the European Union’s EIC Fund also contributed to the new financing round. Proxima Fusion said more than 90% of its investors are European.

Article content

Its technology is centered on a device called a stellarator, a twisted donut-shaped chamber that uses powerful magnets to contain the super hot gas, or plasma, designed to create nuclear reactions. Sciortino called the approach more stable than others, such as the large tokamak design or newer methods using lasers.

Article content

With its latest funding round, Proxima Fusion — which has offices in Munich, Zurich and Oxford — describes itself as the “best-funded” nuclear fusion company in Europe. However, it has less capital than US competitors, including Commonwealth, which has raised almost $3 billion from investors, and Helion Energy Inc, a startup backed by Sam Altman. 

Article content

But Sciortino argued that these rivals were formed years before his. “We are faster than anyone else,” he said. “And Europeans should celebrate that for once.” 

Article content