A Munich-based fusion company is pursuing an unconventional and technically demanding path to clean energy, betting that Europe's manufacturing expertise and public investment can overcome the steep engineering challenges that have long plagued fusion development.
Proxima Fusion, which recently won €400m (£340m; $460m) from the state of Bavaria, is developing a stellarator called Alpha—a device with a deliberately twisted, complex geometry designed to make controlling superheated plasma easier than in rival approaches. The company is also bidding for more than a billion dollars of federal government funding, with a decision expected next year.
The stellarator represents a fundamentally different bet on fusion technology than the tokamak approach favored by many competitors. While tokamaks use simpler, doughnut-shaped designs, stellarators employ intricate twists and turns that make them "much more difficult and expensive to build," according to co-founder and CEO Francesco Sciortino. Yet Sciortino argues this complexity pays off: the stellarator's geometry makes the burning hot plasma "easier to control than in the rival tokamak design."
The Manufacturing Challenge
The core obstacle facing Proxima is manufacturing at scale. The company uses an expensive type of steel in its magnets that requires machining to high precision—work that demands both technical skill and speed. Sciortino says he "loses sleep" over whether Proxima can manufacture the magnets "faster than people would expect, and can we drive down the cost?"
He points to Germany's manufacturing advantage: the country has approximately 550,000 CNC machinists—computer-controlled machine tool operators—compared with 350,000 in the entire United States. A prototype magnetic coil is under construction and is planned to be tested next year. Once testing is complete, the company plans to build 40 more magnetic coils for Alpha, requiring a magnet factory currently in early stages of construction. Sciortino has set an aggressive timeline, stating: "In, 2028, 2029 we need to be able to make magnets at a crazy, crazy speed."
The company's approach draws on decades of research by Germany's Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and its stellarator W7-X. Sciortino notes that W7-X took more than a decade to become operational, but he aims to get Alpha running in a third of that time.
Competing Visions for Fusion's Future
Proxima is one of 53 fusion projects tracked by the Fusion Industry Association, competing for limited resources and investor confidence. The UK-based Step project, backed by the UK government, is pursuing the tokamak approach and plans to build a prototype power plant on the site of a former coal-fired power station in West Burton, Yorkshire.
Ryan Ramsey, director of Organisational Performance at Step and formerly captain of the nuclear submarine HMS Turbulent, argues that tokamaks have "the advantage of a deep experimental foundation built over decades" and have "demonstrated plasma performance closer to what's required for a fusion power plant, including operation with fusion fuel." He notes that tokamaks benefit from "comparatively simpler magnetic geometry, with fewer and more regular coils," which has implications for manufacturability, maintainability and cost.
Ramsey emphasizes that the fusion sector should be viewed as exploring "different trade-offs" rather than pursuing a single path. "The real question now is not which concept is most interesting, but which can credibly deliver a power plant," he said.
The Stakes for European Industry
Sciortino frames Proxima's work within a broader context of European industrial capacity. He notes that Europe has key suppliers positioned across the continent, potentially positioning Europe at the forefront of a future fusion industry. "We [Europeans] missed the digital wave, didn't we?" Sciortino observed. "But it turns out that we still have people being trained in manufacturing."
Fusion technology promises to capture on Earth the reaction that powers the Sun. Success could deliver abundant, cheap, and emission-free electricity by fusing hydrogen nuclei together, releasing immense amounts of energy. However, a working commercial power station remains a long way off. The process requires maintaining extremely high temperatures—many times those found on the Sun—and controlling a burning hot plasma made from hydrogen isotopes tritium and deuterium.
If Alpha succeeds in producing more energy than it consumes, the lessons learned will inform the design of Stellaris, a more advanced fusion power plant. The prototype magnetic coil testing planned for next year will provide crucial data on whether the stellarator's complex geometry can be manufactured efficiently enough to be economically viable.
Why This Matters:
Fusion energy represents a potential solution to decarbonizing electricity generation—a critical requirement for meeting climate goals while maintaining reliable power supplies. The public funding commitments from Bavaria and the federal government reflect recognition that fusion development requires sustained, long-term investment beyond what private markets alone have historically provided. The competing approaches—stellarator versus tokamak—involve different trade-offs between technical complexity and manufacturing feasibility, with significant implications for which nations and companies will lead a potential fusion industry. The outcome of Proxima's work will also test whether Europe can retain manufacturing expertise and industrial capacity in advanced technology sectors, particularly as the continent seeks to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and build economic resilience. The decision on federal funding next year will signal the extent to which public institutions are willing to back high-risk, high-reward energy infrastructure development.