Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Cambridge startup seeking to commercialize fusion energy, said Thursday that it raised $115 million from investors, completing its first round of venture financing.
The Series A funding includes $50 million from Italian oil company Eni that CFS disclosed last year. Other investors in the round include Future Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Lowercase Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Safar Partners, Schooner Capital, and Starlight Ventures.
CFS is working with the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT to develop what it hopes will be the first commercial system that creates power using nuclear fusion, or the forced combination of two hydrogen atoms into a single helium atom. Nuclear fusion, which drives the sun and hydrogen bombs, promises almost limitless energy with no carbon emissions that warm up the planet.
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Today’s nuclear power reactors split atoms, a process that leaves behind radioactive waste.
CFS, which was founded by MIT scientists, said the funding will allow it demonstrate its high-temperature superconductor magnets by 2021 and a full power plant prototype by 2025.