The Aussie startup betting on fusion energy as Big Tech backs nuclear to power AI boom
Nuclear fusion is still about 30 years away from going mainstream. Australian fusion startup HB11 has a plan to be profitable before then.
American tech titans, scrambling to power AI development, are proving more eager than ever to make bets on unproven energy tech. That may prove great news for one Australian startup.
HB11 Energy is Australia's first nuclear startup. After five years of R&D to test whether its approach works, COO Greg Ainsworth says it's now raising a seed round to develop the tech at scale.
Startup seed rounds are typically in the $1 million to $5 million range. “Not in nuclear fusion,” Ainsworth told Capital Brief, days after returning from a trip to Japan and the UAE to speak to potential investors. “We’re raising a few tens of millions, USD.”
Whereas today’s nuclear plants use nuclear fission to split atoms, fusion proposes the opposite: fusing nuclei together causes bursts of heat and, in turn, generates energy. The Sydney-based startup uses lasers to fuse hydrogen and boron-11 atoms, creating the chemical reaction from which the company gets its name. Ainsworth says the funds it’s raising will be used to develop lasers, the hydrogen-boron fuel pellets they shoot through, and manufacturing facilities to make both.
