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A newly founded company led by former Google DeepMind researchers is targeting a critical gap in the fusion energy sector. Fusionality, established this year by Federico Felici and Jonas Buchli, has secured $3.7 million in pre-seed funding to create standardized control systems and simulation tools for fusion power startups. The Lausanne-based firm aims to help accelerate development timelines by providing reusable components rather than requiring each company to build proprietary systems from scratch.
Felici and Buchli identified their business opportunity through direct conversations with fusion companies that repeatedly expressed frustration over the lack of specialized suppliers. During their previous roles at research institutions and Google DeepMind, the cofounders spent years solving the exact technical challenges their future customers face. Their experience revealed that while fusion reactor designs vary significantly, approximately 80 percent of control system requirements remain fundamentally identical across different approaches.
Maintaining stable fusion reactions requires precise, real-time management of plasma temperature, shape, and fuel levels—a technically demanding task. Fusionality’s platform will provide magnetic confinement fusion startups with modular components they can customize for their specific reactor designs, similar to assembling Lego blocks. The company currently focuses on magnetic confinement technology used by firms like Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Proxima Fusion, with plans to expand into other fusion approaches later.
While artificial intelligence will likely enhance future control systems, Felici cautioned against relying solely on AI for complete reactor management. The seven-person team plans to use its initial funding to develop a targeted selection of core technologies that can eventually expand into a comprehensive suite of operational tools.
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Originally reported by Techcrunch →
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