Proxima Fusion

Founded: 2023

Website: https://www.proximafusion.com

Proxima Fusion – founded in 2023 and based in Munich, Germany – is a startup that aims to commercialise fusion energy by leveraging quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarator technology. Proxima employs more than 90 people across offices in Munich, near Zurich at the Paul Scherrer Institute, and at the Culham fusion campus near Oxford.

The company is a spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (Max Planck IPP), home to the world’s most advanced optimised stellarator, W7-X. Proxima Fusion works closely with Max Planck IPP and also other institutions in the European fusion ecosystem such as the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Forschungszentrum Jülich, the Paul Scherrer Institute and partners in the European private sector.

The company unveiled its Stellaris commercial stellarator concept in early 2025. Proxima plans to complete its Stellarator Model Coil by early 2027 and to have a demonstration device named Alpha operational by 2031, with the goal of introducing a commercially viable power plant called Stellaris in the mid- to late 2030s.