Proxima Fusion Plans €140M Factory for Critical Fusion-Grade HTS Tape

Proxima Fusion said Wednesday it plans to build a €140 million ($162.6 million) factory to produce fusion-grade high-temperature superconducting tape. The material is described as a critical ingredient for the startup’s reactor design. The plan puts manufacturing capacity at the center of Proxima’s fusion strategy.

Proxima plans to use HTS tape to generate powerful magnetic fields that contain the plasma needed to spark fusion reactions. Its demonstration plant will use 20,000 kilometers of HTS tape, while its commercial power plant will need twice as much. That makes the tape not just a component, but a major input for scaling its reactor plans.

Today, the vast majority of HTS tape is made in China and Japan, according to the article. Proxima plans to complete the factory using a mix of public and private funding, with the state of Lower Saxony contributing €21 million. The factory plan follows Proxima’s €411 million raise, which TechCrunch says moved the company up the ranks of the best-funded fusion startups.

HTS tape emerged a little over a decade ago as one of the breakthroughs behind the current generation of fusion power startups. Because it can generate strong magnetic fields at relatively high temperatures, it enables smaller and more efficient reactor designs. Fusion power is expected to consume a large portion of global HTS tape production, while companies such as Veir are also using it to improve data center efficiency and power density.