Energy Matter Conversion Corporation (EMC2)

Founded: 1985

Website: www.emc2fusion.com

EMC2 was founded in 1985 by the late Dr. Robert W. Bussard, a Princeton-trained physicist and former US Atomic Energy Commission official. For nearly two decades, EMC2 operated as an R&D organisation funded almost entirely by United States Navy contracts. Federal award records identify $19.02 million of Navy obligations, funding formally committed, across six Navy contracts and purchase orders with activity from 2003 to 2015, supporting the company’s Advanced Gaseous Electrostatic Energy and Wiffleball/Polywell development programmes. 

After Navy funding ended, the company entered a period of reduced activity, pivoting to high-performance computing simulation rather than hardware builds but nearing dormancy by 2019. The company has since been revived, publishing a scientific paper in August 2025 and since mid-2026, preparing its next experimental device and pursuing commercial contracts.