Billionaires Chase ‘SpaceX Moment’ for the Holy Grail of Energy | Bloomberg

Cash in fusion

"One of the most ambitious ventures is Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a company founded last year by six MIT professors. Backed by some of the biggest names in business, they’re confident they’ll be able to produce a prototype of a so-called net energy reactor by 2025.

The startup raised $50 million in March from a group led by Italy’s Eni SpA, one of several oil producers preparing for a carbon-neutral world. And last month it secured an unspecified sum from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a fund seeded by Gates, Bezos and fellow tycoons including Richard Branson, Ray Dalio and Michael Bloomberg, the majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

“The greater danger is not having anybody succeed than having everybody,” Commonwealth Fusion CEO Bob Mumgaard said by phone from Cambridge, Massachusetts. “We need more smart people driving very hard to crack this.”"

Billionaires Chase ‘SpaceX Moment’ for the Holy Grail of Energy | Bloomberg