AsianFin -- Commonwealth Fusion Systems has secured $863 million from investors including Nvidia, Google, and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, in one of the largest financings for a private fusion power company.

The Massachusetts-based startup, which has now raised nearly $3 billion, aims to accelerate the push to make fusion a commercial energy source. Its last major round in 2021 brought in $1.8 billion.

“This round isn’t just about advancing fusion as an idea, but about moving it into a commercial, industrial reality,” co-founder and CEO Bob Mumgaard said during a call with reporters.

Fusion — long touted as a near-limitless, clean energy solution — is gaining traction with investors as advances in computing and AI accelerate progress. Startups like CFS are racing to prove the technology can be scaled and deployed at industrial levels.

At the core of the process, atoms are compressed and heated into plasma, the so-called fourth state of matter. Under the right conditions, they fuse and unleash vast amounts of energy, a breakthrough scientists and investors hope to harness for global power needs.