Pacific Fusion has begun construction on a new facility in New Mexico that is designed to produce as much energy as it uses, bringing the company closer to a major fusion milestone known as net facility gain.
According to co-founder and chief operating officer Carrie von Muench, the project represents a significant advance for commercial fusion power, with the company saying no comparable facility is currently being built in the United States.
The Albuquerque campus will test Pacific Fusion's method, which uses tightly synchronized bursts of electricity to form a magnetic field around a tiny fuel target and compress it until fusion occurs. The demonstration system is expected to deliver only a few shots per day, while a future power plant would need to operate at a much faster pace.
The company aims to reach net facility gain by 2030 and sees a path toward a commercial plant in the mid-2030s. Its full-scale reactor would need to generate roughly five times more energy than the demonstration setup to support the extra systems required for power production.
Pacific Fusion says the new site will also support high-yield fusion experiments with potential national security applications. Each pulse is expected to produce around 100 megajoules, a level the company says is about 10 times the output of the National Ignition Facility.
Founded in 2023, Pacific Fusion has quickly become one of the best-funded startups in the sector, raising more than $1 billion in a milestone-based Series A round. As the global race for fusion power accelerates, the company's progress could help shape how clean, high-density energy enters the grid in the years ahead.
