Thea Energy lands $20M federal grant to build its magnets for fusion reactors
Thea Energy received a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's ARPA-E program to manufacture high-temperature superconducting magnets for its fusion reactor. The startup aims to build a commercial-scale fusion power plant by the mid-2040s.
Fusion startup Thea Energy has received a $20 million federal award from ARPA-E to support manufacturing of its modular high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. These magnets are costly but crucial for magnetic confinement reactors, one of the main approaches to achieving commercial fusion power.
Thea's reactor uses a stellarator design, which relies on twisted magnetic fields to confine plasma. To reduce manufacturing costs, the company uses only four different templates for its 12 large magnets, while its more than 300 smaller tuning magnets are all identical and software-controlled. This approach allows for more forgiving construction tolerances, lowering costs.
Thea is among the best-funded fusion startups. It raised a $20 million Series A in 2024 and an additional $100 million in May 2026. The company plans to begin construction of a commercial-scale fusion power plant by the mid-2040s.
