Bill Gates fund backs ‘Star Wars’ fusion tech in bid for limitless power
Laser tech developed for Reagan-era US defence programme is being repurposed for fusion reactors
Bill Gates’ energy innovation fund is among investors to have pumped $100m into a nuclear fusion start-up using ‘Star Wars’ technology in a bid to unlock limitless clean energy.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the fund set up by Microsoft founder Gates to support clean tech start-ups, has helped raise the sum for US start-up Xcimer Energy in a funding round led by venture capital firm Hedosophia.
Xcimer, founded in 2022 in Denver, Colorado and previously the recipient of funding from the US Department of Energy, said it will use the money to set up a new facility in its home city to test its prototype laser system.
“This Series A financing enables us to achieve key milestones along the path to commercial inertial fusion energy,” said Xcimer CEO and chief science officer Conner Galloway.