Google has entered Proxima Fusion’s €400 million funding round as a strategic investor, a move that values the German fusion startup at €2.4 billion. This is the first time Google has directly invested in a European fusion company. The tech giant has signaled it is not only seeking financial returns but is also interested in purchasing electricity from a future Proxima commercial plant to help power its data centers.
Structure of the financing
The funding round was led by XTX Markets, the trading firm of British billionaire Alex Gerko, which provided one quarter of the €400 million. East X Ventures also participated in the round, while Google joined as a strategic investor. German utility RWE participated as a strategic investor as well and previously offered the site of a decommissioned nuclear plant for a future commercial facility.
Proxima Fusion’s roadmap and timeline
Proxima Fusion spun out of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in 2023. The company aims to build an approximately €2 billion demonstration fusion facility in Germany by 2031 to demonstrate that its technology can generate electricity at commercial scale. Following that, Proxima plans to commission a grid-connected commercial plant by the late 2030s.
To finance the project, the company is seeking €1.2 billion in federal support from the German government; the state of Bavaria has already pledged €400 million.
Why Google and other tech firms are involved
Francesco Sciortino, CEO of Proxima Fusion, told the Financial Times that Google is exploring all possible energy sources to secure sufficient electricity for its rapidly growing data center fleet. According to Sciortino, Google is not only an investor in the funding round but also interested in buying power from Proxima’s future commercial plant. The startup is in talks with multiple potential customers, though Sciortino did not name them.
This is not Google’s first step into nuclear technologies: the company previously invested in the US-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems and agreed a long-term power purchase arrangement for the early 2030s. Google also agreed to buy 500 megawatts of electricity from Kairos Power’s small modular fission reactors starting in 2035.
Fusion’s technical status and risks
Fusion promises large amounts of low-carbon electricity by fusing atomic nuclei, mimicking the process powering the Sun. However, the technology remains experimental: no private company has yet demonstrated sustained net energy gain where output exceeds the energy required to operate the plasma.
Investors say the involvement of major tech firms boosts the credibility of the fusion sector, but it does not guarantee that any particular development path will reach economically viable commercial power plants. At present it is unclear which technical approaches will prove viable, prompting companies like Google to back multiple players.
The urgent energy challenge for tech companies
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence and the training and operation of new AI models greatly increase data centers’ electricity demand. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are building new data centers worldwide, facilities that consume very large amounts of power. With grid connections often taking years to build in many countries, tech giants increasingly combine power purchase agreements with direct investments in energy projects — from renewables to small modular reactors and now fusion — to secure long-term energy supplies.
