General Fusion began trading on the Nasdaq today under the ticker GFUZ, becoming the first publicly listed fusion power company, beating competitor and Trump-backed TAE Technologies by several months.
The stock rallied as trading began Monday and is now up 40% from $12.85 as of 12:50 pm ET.
General Fusion announced in January that it would merge with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III, and the transaction was completed last week.
Without redemptions, the fusion power company could have added as much as $230 million to its balance sheets. But most de-SPAC deals see a wave of redemptions before the merger completes. This one is no exception, and while the company hasn’t disclosed the exact amount yet, a report in the Globe and Mail estimates that General Fusion might receive less than $30 million after redemptions and fees.
Alongside the de-SPAC, General Fusion also raised $108 million from private investors. Altogether, the company says it holds about $150 million in cash.
Before the reverse merger was announced, General Fusion was running short on cash and struggling to raise more. The company had reportedly been attempting to raise $125 million. But by May 2025, it hadn’t materialized, and General Fusion laid off at least 25% of its employees. Three months later, the company convinced existing investors to put in another $22 million in what was reportedly a “pay to play” round.
That round gave General Fusion some breathing room. But fusion power is an expensive business, and the company was soon looking for more funding, which culminated in the reverse merger announced in January.
Founded in 2002, General Fusion is one of the oldest fusion power companies around. Over the years, it has raised over $600 million from private investors.
The company’s approach to fusion power, known as magnetized target fusion, uses electromagnetic fields to create magnetized plasma, a soup of superheated particles, inside a chamber lined with liquid lithium. Once the plasma is formed, it will use rings of pistons to compress liquid lithium around the fusion fuel until the atoms within fuse and release energy.
Previously, the company said it would use steam to drive the pistons, though today it …