F

Fuse Energy Technologies Corporation, known as Fuse and operating at f.energy, is a privately held U.S. company working at the intersection of defense and fusion power. It builds advanced pulsed-power radiation machines that generate short bursts of radiation, used to test the resilience of government and commercial hardware, and is developing fusion generators intended to deliver clean energy. The company was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in San Leandro, California, where it operates a radiation facility.

The company's technical approach is magnetized-liner inertial fusion (MagLIF), a Z-pinch magneto-inertial fusion concept whose feasibility for fusion engineering breakeven was demonstrated by Sandia National Laboratories in 2018 and 2022. Fuse states that the remaining obstacles are repetition rate and cost, and it focuses on engineering efficiency and affordability. Its development sequence runs from TITAN, a 1 TW impedance-matched Marx generator (IMG) described as 90% energy efficient and built from 16 IMG modules; to Z-Star, a 15 TW MagLIF generator with roughly 90 IMG modules intended to work through system engineering challenges; to APEIRON-I, a planned MagLIF plant core. Additional named programs include FAETON and ICECAP. Fuse frames its roadmap in three phases: hardened electronics and radiation testing (HEART), recycling of radioactive waste, and ultimately an on-demand clean energy source.

Fuse's leadership and advisory ranks are drawn heavily from U.S. national security institutions. Former Los Alamos National Laboratory chief engineer James Owen is president of subsidiary Fuse Federal, LLC; former CIA Afghanistan base chief Laura Thomas is chief strategy officer; and former Atomic Energy Organization of Iran scientist Vahid Damideh is chief engineer. Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, former NNSA administrator and Under Secretary of Energy, joined the board in 2024 and also sits among an advisory board that includes former senior officials from Palantir, the CIA, the NSA, the Department of Justice, the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, Lockheed Martin, and the Joint Staff.

Founding story

Fuse was founded in 2019 by J.C. Btaiche, then 19 years old, initially to evaluate different fusion power approaches before selecting pulsed-power-driven MagLIF.

Business model

Fuse sells radiation and nuclear effects testing services and machines to national security customers, using that revenue-generating defense business as an intermediate commercial step on the way to fusion power generation. It holds contracts with the U.S. Air Force and the National Nuclear Security Administration and cooperative research and development agreements with Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Government and defense contracts for nuclear effects and radiation testing; the company positions nuclear effects testing as a revenue source along the pathway to commercial fusion.

Traction

Fuse reports delivering two neutron-producing fusion generators and what it calls the world's first IMG pulser in under three years, 18 patents, FAETON I moving from concept to operation in four months, and TITAN going from concept to first shot in eight months. It holds U.S. Air Force and NNSA contracts and CRADAs with Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories, and had 53 employees as of 2024.

Latest developments

Coverage referenced by the company in 2026 includes a five-year agreement expanding its NNSA footprint at the Nevada National Security Site, a planned Albuquerque facility, and claims of the highest neutron yield by a fusion company; in July 2025 Fuse signed a cooperative research and development agreement with Los Alamos National Laboratory.