Google, Chevron invest in fusion startup TAE Technologies

Google and Chevron are part of a $250 million funding raise announced Tuesday for TAE Technologies, a nuclear fusion startup with an unconventional strategy.

Nuclear fusion is often referred to as the “holy grail” of clean energy because it would be a way to generate nearly unlimited emission-free energy, without generating the same long-lasting radioactive waste that nuclear fission generates.

Nuclear fission is the way that conventional nuclear power plants generate energy and involves splitting a larger atom into two smaller atoms, thereby releasing energy. Nuclear fusion is the reverse process, when two larger atoms slam together to form one larger atom thereby releasing energy. Fusion is the elemental process that powers stars and the sun, but has proven fiendishly difficult to sustain in a controlled reaction on Earth, despite decades of effort.

“TAE — and fusion technology as a whole — has the potential to be a scalable source of no-carbon energy generation and a key enabler of grid stability as renewables become a greater portion of the energy mix,” said Jim Gable, president of Chevron Technology Ventures, the energy company’s corporate venture capital arm, in a statement announcing Tuesday’s funding round.

Google, the search giant owned by parent company Alphabet, has partnered with TAE since 2014, providing the fusion startup with artificial intelligence and computational power. But Tuesday marks Google’s first cash investment in TAE.

A Japanese investment company, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, participated in the round as well, and will help TAE bring its fusion technology to the Asian-Pacific region.

The investment follows an announcement in October that TAE partnered with Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science. Japan currently gets the majority of its energy from coal, oil and natural gas, according to the International Energy Association. Its geography makes its clean energy goals particularly challenging.

“Unlike many other countries, Japan does not have an abundance of renewable energy resources and its high population density, mountainous terrain, and steep shorelines represent serious barriers to scaling up the ones it does have, particularly as many of its few flatlands are already heavily covered by solar panels,” Fatih Birol, executive director at the international industry organization, International Energy Agency, wrote about the country’s energy landscape in 2021. That means Japan needs to focus on energy efficiency and nuclear power, among other sources, Birol said.  

Also on Tuesday, TAE announced a technical milestone: It achieved temperatures greater than 75 million degrees Celsius with its current fusion reactor machine, nicknamed Norman. (A photo essay of how Norman works can be found here.)

The…