Pacific Fusion has made significant progress toward commercial fusion power by breaking ground on a new demonstration facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, designed to achieve net facility gain—producing as much energy as it consumes. According to Carrie von Muench, the co-founder and COO, this facility is a major advance, potentially the first of its kind in the United States aimed at proving this critical milestone. While other fusion experiments have generated fusion energy exceeding input fuel energy, no project has yet powered itself fully, a gap Pacific Fusion intends to bridge by 2030 and eventually operate a commercial plant by the mid-2030s.

The company’s fusion approach involves using coordinated electrical pulses to generate a magnetic field that compresses a small fuel target, causing fusion reactions. The new facility will compress plasma with rapid, precise pulses powered by 156 pulser modules, each containing many capacitors and switches to deliver intense electrical bursts. Their recent successful testing of a scaled pulser prototype generated 440 gigawatts in an extremely short pulse, which gave the green light to start construction on this larger demonstration system. The plant will perform several fusion "shots" daily, though a commercial power plant would require shots once every second.

Beyond demonstrating net energy gain, Pacific Fusion’s facility will also contribute to national security efforts by enabling high-yield fusion experiments, producing energy pulses roughly 10 times stronger than those at the aging National Ignition Facility. The company aims to outpace global competitors like China, positioning itself as a leader in fusion technology with a machine that has unprecedented power output and pulsing capabilities. This new campus marks a rapid evolution since the company’s founding in 2023 and is fueled in part by substantial funding exceeding $1 billion, secured in a milestone-based Series A round.

Pacific Fusion faces stiff competition in the race to commercial fusion, with other well-funded startups such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Helion Energy, Proxima Fusion, and Inertia Enterprises targeting grid-ready fusion plants by the 2030s. Nevertheless, Pacific Fusion’s ambitious demonstration facility, powerful pulser technology, and strategic funding position it as a key player aiming to deliver fusion’s long-promised clean, inexhaustible energy source within the next decade.