- Qiming Venture Partners and CMC Capital lead latest round in Shanghai-based fusion startup Sunup Fusion
- Company pursues helium-3-based small modular reactor design alongside mainstream deuterium-tritium efforts
Sunup Fusion (东昇聚变) has raised $100 million in a pre-Series A financing round, underscoring continued investor appetite for controlled nuclear fusion technologies despite long commercialization timelines.
The round was jointly led by Qiming Venture Partners, Zhuhai Huajin Capital, ICBC Capital and CMC Capital Partners, with participation from Fortune Capital, Qianhai Ark Capital, Orient Securities, Huafu Growth Investment and Lanxi Capital.
Existing backers including CAS Star, Fibonacci VC and Baidu.venture continued to increase their stakes.
Founded in July 2025 and based on a magnetic confinement fusion team from Fudan University, Sunup Fusion is pursuing a differentiated technical route focused on deuterium-helium-3 (D-He3) fuel for compact, high-field fusion power systems.
Helium-3 pathway
This approach diverges from the more common deuterium-tritium (D-T) approach used in most global projects.
The company said the helium-3 pathway produces minimal neutron radiation and could enable smaller, lower-cost reactor designs.
Its core team includes researchers from Fudan University, Tsinghua University and other leading international institutions, with experience spanning fusion device design, experimental operations and engineering management.
Notably, this marks one of the rare cases where Fudan, traditionally known for its strengths in the humanities, has incubated a fast-rising company in one of the most closely watched sectors.
Sunup Fusion is currently building its first-generation “Hope” experimental device, which integrates high-temperature superconducting magnets with AI-based plasma control systems to accelerate engineering validation. “Hope” stands for high-field operation plasma experiment.
The latest financing marks the company’s second funding round in six months. In January, it completed a multi-hundred-million-yuan angel round backed by prominent investors including CDH VGC, CAS Star, IDG Capital, HongShan, Hillhouse Capital and Loongson Venture Capital.
The new proceeds will be used primarily for construction of the “Hope” system.
From feasibility to reality
“We are seeing fusion move from scientific feasibility toward engineering reality, driven by advances in superconducting materials and plasma control,” said Qiming Venture Partners executive director Chen Nan. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that this cohort of entrepreneurs may help bring to life.”
CMC Capital partner Gu Xiaoli said Sunup Fusion is unusual among private fusion startups in combining backing from top universities, local government support and global research institutions.
The startup is also a so-called “industry chain leader” with end-to-end engineering capability for large-scale fusion systems, Gu added.
Sunup Fusion is targeting a roughly 12-year roadmap to achieve net energy gain in its helium-3-based system.
It sees the D-He3 approach as complementary to mainstream D-T fusion, envisioning a hybrid future energy system in which large-scale plants are deployed far from urban centers while compact reactors are located closer to cities and data centers.
The fundraising highlights growing investor interest in alternative fusion pathways as Shanghai builds an emerging ecosystem around controlled fusion, anchored by institutions including Fudan University.
China’s nuclear fusion industry is entering a critical phase of transition from laboratory research to engineering deployment.
A research note from Zheshang Securities, a stock brokerage firm, estimates that the global fusion equipment market could reach an annual scale of 266 billion yuan ($39 billion) by 2035, while domestic investment alone is projected to approach 60 billion yuan between 2025 and 2027.
