Break the private nuclear fusion financing record.
Still stunning.
Today (August 31), Nova Fusion announced that it has officially completed the Pre-A series financing totaling RMB 1.2 billion (covering Pre-A and Pre-A+ tranches). The round saw continued heavy investment from Meituan Longzhu and GL Ventures, while Lenovo Capital and Guozhong Capital joined as new strategic investors with significant capital contributions.
It has only been 4 months since its last round of financing. Exclusive information from PE Daily shows that the overall process of this Pre-A series financing, from launch to closing, was extremely efficient. “This round of financing was completed on the back of over-subscription.”
Up to now, Nova Fusion has completed three consecutive rounds of financing in the 16 months since its establishment, with total financing of RMB 24 billion and a post-money valuation of over RMB 100 billion. It has refreshed three records in China’s private nuclear fusion sector: total financing scale, financing speed and valuation, firmly ranking first in the industry.
This is a true portrayal of the booming nuclear fusion sector this year. The day when mankind “creates the sun” may really be not far away.
A Milestone Moment: The Birth of a RMB 10 Billion Nuclear Fusion Unicorn
This is undoubtedly a phenomenal financing deal.
Looking first at the investor lineup of this round: Meituan Longzhu is a VC institution established by Meituan, focusing on investment in the consumer and technology sectors. Its continued heavy investment in this round marks its high recognition of the engineering progress of Nova Fusion; GL Ventures has long focused on investment in scientific and technological innovation and early growth-stage projects, deeply cultivating high-quality projects in the hard technology field. Its increased stake in this round undoubtedly injects solid confidence into the long-term development of Nova Fusion.
The continuous additional investment from old shareholders sends a strong signal: it fully reflects the core investors’ direct recognition of the FRC-SMR (Field-Reversed Configuration Small Modular Fusion Reactor) technical route and the development pace of Nova Fusion.
The joint entry of Lenovo Capital and Guozhong Capital is also of extraordinary significance: the former is a global technology industry fund under Lenovo Group, positioned as Lenovo’s “technology watchtower”, reflecting the server leader’s strategic layout from the perspective of computing-power and power coordination ecosystem; the latter manages multiple sub-funds of the National SME Development Fund, focusing on investment in hard technology and advanced manufacturing fields. This move to some extent means that the strategic value of the FRC-SMR technical route has entered the vision of national-level capital.
It is worth mentioning that the competition for financing shares far exceeded everyone’s expectations. Guo Houyang, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Nova Fusion, revealed to PE Daily that after the news of this round of financing was released, the number of actively contacting investment institutions was far higher than the company’s financing demand. Finally, this round of financing was selectively completed under over-subscription. “We value more whether investors can bring long-term value to the company in terms of industrial resources and strategic synergy, rather than just the capital itself.”
There are several details that Guo Houyang still remembers clearly. Almost all the investors who had in-depth communication in this round are no longer satisfied with only listening to technical concepts and industry stories, but asked very specific questions about the engineering implementation milestones: what is the progress of “Nova No.1”? What are the engineering prototype verification data of the four core technologies? In his view, the focus of investors now is on seeing real objects, real data and ongoing projects, rather than PPTs, which also shows that the capital market’s perception of nuclear fusion has entered the stage of “implementation and verification” from the “concept hype” stage.
In addition, many investors will voluntarily conduct benchmarking analysis between Nova Fusion and the US-based Helion Energy when conducting due diligence. The latter has raised more than 2.1 billion US dollars in total with a valuation of 15.5 billion US dollars, and plans to supply power to Microsoft’s AI supercomputing center in 2028, which allows investors to see the commercialization potential of the FRC-SMR route.
When asked “Why can China’s FRC-SMR enterprises stand out?”, our answer is very clear: then China’s complete industrial manufacturing chain, strong engineering implementation capability, plus the world’s leading large-scale AI computing power market demand, we have our own unique path and pace
Therefore, investors voted with real money. As Wang Xinyu, Partner of Meituan Longzhu, said, FRC-SMR adapts to the power demand of AIDC on an ultra-large scale and with rapid expansion in the future. Meituan Longzhu has confidence in the engineering roadmap of Nova Fusion, and hopes to accompany and support the outstanding member enterprises to grow and develop in the long run.
In the view of Shi Chenxing from Lenovo Capital, the nuclear fusion market will reach a scale of one hundred trillion yuan in the future, which is the main battlefield for major countries’ competition. The state-backed tokamak route adheres to the orthodox path, while the private enterprise Nova Fusion takes the unconventional FRC route. In the future, the steady continuous operation of tokamak will be responsible for large-scale power supply, and the target cost of FRC-SMR per kWh is as low as about 0.07 RMB, which is only 1/10 of the current industrial and commercial electricity price, naturally suitable for distributed energy supply for AI, rockets, space and other scenarios. “Dr. Guo Houyang, the founder, is one of the pioneer inventors of the FRC technical route. Nova Fusion has become the absolute leader in the track in terms of team, technology, financing amount and valuation.”
The investment team of Guozhong Capital also believes that under the current AI wave, controllable nuclear fusion, as an important AIDC power supply solution, has long-term certainty and high growth potential. “The FRC technical route chosen by Nova Fusion features simple structure, low cost, fast iteration speed, and has been technically verified. It is a controllable nuclear fusion technical solution that is expected to overtake the tokamak route in the future and is more suitable for venture capital to participate in.”
In fact, Nova Fusion has long left a deep impression on the venture capital circle.
Back in August 2025, Nova Fusion completed a RMB 500 million angel round of financing, with investors including well-known institutions and important strategic investors such as the Special Fund for Zhongguancun Independent Innovation of the Social Security Fund (managed by Legend Capital), Legend Capital, Lightspeed China Partners, Gaorong Capital, Huakong Fund, Matrix Partners China, Yunqi Capital and Lingang Science & Technology Innovation Investment. At that time, PE Daily confirmed with multiple insiders that Alibaba, as the lead investor, also participated in this round of financing.
In April this year, Nova Fusion completed another RMB 700 million angel+ round of financing. Alibaba, as an early investor, continued to make heavy bets, new investors including Meituan Longzhu, GL Ventures, Shangqi Capital, Inovance Industrial Investment and JiuKun Investment joined in, and well-known institutions such as Legend Capital, Gaorong Capital and Lightspeed China Partners continued to follow the investment.
Unconsciously, a luxurious investor lineup has gathered behind Nova Fusion, covering AIDC industrial capital, top professional financial investment institutions, industrial CVCs, national and local patient capital, building the capital matrix with the richest dimensions and the strongest financial strength in China’s private nuclear fusion sector. With the joint efforts of all parties, a RMB 10 billion nuclear fusion unicorn has been born.
Led by the Scientist Who Knows Nuclear Fusion Best, the First Plasma Discharge Is About to Be Realized
There has always been a universal consensus in the venture capital circle: investment is about investing in people.
Having been deeply engaged in the nuclear fusion field for more than 40 years, Guo Houyang has an impressive resume: Fellow of the American Physical Society, National Distinguished Expert of China, pioneer inventor of FRC-SMR small modular fusion technology, and one of the very few top Chinese scientists in the world who are proficient in both tokamak and FRC technical routes at the same time.
In the FRC field, he once served as the experimental director of the largest FRC research program of the US Department of Energy, Chief Scientist and Head of Experimental R&D of TAE, the world’s largest FRC energy company, and has the world’s rare full-chain FRC plasma experiment and large-scale device operation experience.
Moreover, in 2021, Guo Houyang returned to China to start his business with decades of technical and experience accumulation in the FRC and tokamak fields. He successively served as Fusion CTO of ENN Group, Co-founder and CTO of Energy Singularity, and directly led the plasma physics experiment R&D team.
Until April 2025, he officially founded Nova Fusion in Shanghai, which is the first enterprise in China focusing on the R&D and industrialization of FRC-SMR miniaturized and distributed controllable nuclear fusion technology, filling the gap in this field in China.
Recalling the original intention of starting his business, Guo Houyang confessed to PE Daily that what really made him determined to start a business in 2025 was several things that happened at the same time: AI computing power compressed the fusion window from 30 years to 5 to 10 years; the US-based Helion verified the engineering feasibility of the FRC route, has achieved 100 million degrees and started to build the world’s first fusion power plant; China’s hard technology entrepreneurship ecosystem and capital environment are also in place. “It is my luck to found Nova Fusion at this point in time.”
There is a historical origin behind it: in 2010, the “dynamic fusion” technology of FRC plasma collision proposed by Guo Houyang at the Annual Meeting of American Plasma Physics laid the physical foundation for the modular design of FRC-SMR, and this technical system was later adopted by FRC enterprises at home and abroad as the basic architecture of the commercialization route. In other words, the invention
Since its establishment, Nova Fusion has built its unique barrier in team configuration. According to the introduction, Nova Fusion has now gathered more than 60 elites in various fields, with all core links led by senior chief experts, covering the whole chain of physical design, device construction, pulse power supply, system integration, plasma control and diagnosis.
Among them, the four core chief experts all hold the National Science and Technology Progress Award or the first prize at provincial and ministerial level, and have experience in the construction of large scientific devices, including the creator of the fastest construction record of fully superconducting high-temperature superconducting tokamak, the leader of the engineering of multiple generations of China’s Huanliuqi devices, the top expert of domestic high-power pulse power supply, and the pioneer of domestic laser Thomson scattering diagnosis localization.
Looking at the whole track, this is a fully organized and non-replicable team. From another perspective, not only the technology technology implementation are gathered in Nova Fusion
Years of academic and scientific research experience have also allowed Guo Houyang to have a comprehensive understanding of nuclear fusion from physics to engineering, from science to industry. He observed that nuclear fusion is changing from “pursuing scientific limits” to “pursuing engineering feasibility”. When the commercialization challenge of nuclear fusion is put in front of us, the core question becomes: what path, what cost and what schedule can we use to generate electricity?
In this respect, FRC-SMR has natural advantages in engineering feasibility: the ultra-high β value of nearly 100% combined with strong magnetic field realizes the ultimate miniaturization of the device, the magnetic compression scheme realizes the heating efficiency of more than 90%, and the direct power generation technology greatly improves the conversion efficiency. “These parameters are not for publishing papers, but to make commercial power generation economically viable.” Guo Houyang emphasized.
It has only been 16 months since Nova Fusion was founded, and it has achieved full localization, taking the lead in seizing the global first-mover advantage in the industrialization of commercial small fusion reactors.
It is reported that “Nova No.1” has completed the engineering design and core component development, and has fully entered the final assembly and integration stage. Everything is ready, Nova Fusion is sprinting for the first plasma discharge at the end of 2026, aiming to become the first private enterprise in China to achieve a fusion temperature of 100 million ℃ in 2027. In the medium term, it aims to achieve deuterium-tritium (DT) equivalent fusion net energy gain Q>1 by 2029, and is committed to building a 50-100MW commercial demonstration power station in the first half of the 2030s.
Guo Houyang has repeatedly emphasized that there must be no impetuousness in nuclear fusion. Every parameter must be supported by experimental data, and every engineering node must be supported by real objects. “There are no shortcuts to commercialization, only down-to-earth efforts.”
The Breakthrough Race in the New Energy Era
As you can see, a nuclear fusion financing storm is coming. Among them, FRC entrepreneurship is forming a trend in China’s nuclear fusion circle — led by Nova Fusion, many new companies have been established and completed financing in just one year.
Witnessing this change, Guo Houyang said that the FRC route being sought after by capital is an inevitable trend of industry development. Because FRC has natural advantages in device miniaturization, heating efficiency and energy conversion efficiency, it is recognized by the industry as one of the routes most expected to realize commercial grid-connected power generation first, and the US enterprise Helion Energy has proved the commercialization potential of this route.
But he emphasized that FRC is not a “new concept”, and its physical principles have been studied for decades. The real threshold does not lie in “choosing the FRC route”, but in whether you have mastered the full set of core technologies and engineering implementation capabilities.
Guo Houyang believes that there are five key factors that determine the success of a startup: first, the differentiated advantages of the technical route. FRC-SMR targets the energy gap in the 5-10 year window of AI computing power, and is the route most likely to be realized first; second, the practical experience of the founding team. Nuclear fusion is extremely dependent on experience accumulation, and teams that have never built devices or done experiments can hardly go far; third, independent control and engineering verification of core technologies. There must be engineering prototypes and measured data, not just stay at the simulation level; fourth, capital strength and financing rhythm. Nuclear fusion is a heavy-asset, long-cycle industry, and capital guarantee is the bottom line; fifth, a clear and verifiable commercialization path. There must be phased and verifiable milestones, not just long-term visions.
Just as Nova Fusion has firmly laid out the full core technology stack of FRC-SMR from the very beginning, targeting the trillion-dollar global commercial power generation market of Fusion For AI & Beyond. This team has the world’s rare full-chain FRC plasma experiment and large-scale device operation experience, and has a complete physical model covering the whole process of FRC plasma generation, acceleration, collision fusion and magnetic compression. These underlying cognition and engineering experience are moats that peers cannot cross in the short term.
Moreover, the goals set by Nova Fusion are specific and clear: first, to become one of the world’s first enterprises to realize commercial nuclear fusion power generation, build the first 50-100MW small distributed fusion demonstration power station in China in the first half of the 2030s, and serve AI data centers first; second, to promote FRC-SMR to become the mainstream solution for global distributed fusion energy; third, to help China’s fusion industry rank among the core global nuclear fusion competition echelons.
From a global perspective, there is no doubt that nuclear fusion is becoming the core main battlefield for major countries’ competition. In comparison, the United States started earlier in FRC commercialization, and Helion Energy has obtained the world’s first nuclear fusion power station operation license. But Guo Houyang also pointed out that China also has its own unique advantages, which he summarized into three aspects:
First, a complete industrial manufacturing chain. As we all know, the construction of nuclear fusion devices involves dozens of industrial categories, and China is the only country in the world that has all industrial categories. Guo Houyang and his team have a deep understanding of this in the process of building “Nova No.1”: the super-large-diameter special quartz vacuum chamber was successfully developed in cooperation with domestic teams, producing the largest product of its kind in China; the core indicators of high-power all-solid-state switching power supply greatly exceeded the commercial upper limit. “This kind of industrial chain support and engineering implementation speed is not available in many countries.”
Second, the world’s largest market demand for AI computing power energy. It is foreseeable
