Record-Breaking ¥830 Million Seed Round: How China’s Nuclear Fusion Race Just Leveled Up

• Global Magnetic Superconducting Power Supply Market: $4.73 Billion USD
• Global Stellarator R&D Investment Growth: 78% Decrease vs 2023
• China’s Share of Global Fusion R&D Budget: 35%
• Private Share of China’s Stellarator R&D Funding: >55%

Something massive just happened in China’s controllable nuclear fusion sector, and it’s the kind of inflection point that could reshape the global energy landscape.

Hefei Singularity Fusion Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (Xinghe Jubian 星核聚变) just closed a ¥830 million RMB ($116.2 million USD) seed round—the largest seed funding ever raised by a private fusion company in China.

Let that sink in for a second.

This isn’t just another funding announcement.

This is a post-money valuation of ¥2.83 billion RMB ($396.2 million USD) for a company still in the relatively early stages of commercializing fusion technology.

The capital is flowing in from some serious players: state-owned enterprises, industrial giants, deep-tech venture funds, and even two publicly listed companies making cross-sector bets on the fusion future.

Here’s what’s really happening—and why it matters.

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The Biggest Seed Round in China’s Fusion History (And It’s Not Even Close)

Dong Wei (董伟), CEO of Singularity Fusion, was clear about how this money gets deployed: straight into R&D and experimental device construction.

The focus?

Stellarator technology iteration and breakthrough.

This ¥830 million RMB ($116.2 million USD) seed round just shattered previous records for both funding size and valuation in a single fusion seed investment.

It also established an industry first: 24 different institutions investing together in a single round.

That’s a level of ecosystem coordination you rarely see in early-stage hard tech.

Who’s Actually Behind This

The lead investors read like a who’s who of China’s institutional capital:

• SAIC Finance (Shangqi Jinkong 上汽金控)
• Hengxu Capital (Hengxu Ziben 恒旭资本)
• Shenzhen Capital Group (Shenchuangtou 深创投) via the National Innovation Fund
• CAS Star (Zhongke Chuangxing 中科创星)

But here’s where it gets interesting:

The round also pulled in hard-tech focused funds like Legend Star (Lianxiang Zhixing 联想之星), Chaos Investment (Hunhe Ziben 混沌资本), and Walden International (Huadeng Ziben 华登资本).

Plus local state-owned platforms like Guangdong Technology Financial Group (Yueke Chuangtou 粤科创投) and Hefei Innovation Investment (Hefei Shi Chuanxintou 合肥市创新投).

And then there’s the real kicker:

Two publicly listed companies joined as cross-sector investors:

• Zijin Mining (Zijin Kuangye 紫金矿业, 601899.SH)
• Zhongding Group (Zhongding Gufen 中鼎股份, 000887.SZ)

When large-cap public companies start writing checks into fusion companies, it signals something: they see this as a real industrial opportunity, not just a moonshot.

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China’s Fusion Financing Is Accelerating (And Breaking Records)

This funding didn’t come out of nowhere.

The pace of capital flowing into China’s fusion sector has accelerated dramatically this year.

Back in January, Energy Singularity (Xinghuan Jubeng 星环聚能) announced a ¥1 billion RMB ($140 million USD) Series A round—led by Shanghai SNIC and the Shanghai Future Industry Fund—which previously held the record for the largest single financing round for any private fusion enterprise in China.

That record lasted about eight months.

Now Singularity Fusion’s ¥830 million RMB ($116.2 million USD) seed round holds the new title for largest seed-stage funding in the industry.

This isn’t just momentum—it’s validation that the market believes fusion is moving from science experiment to commercial reality.

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Why Stellarators? Understanding the Technology Bet

Singularity Fusion is betting big on a specific fusion technology: the stellarator.

You need to understand why this matters.

The controllable nuclear fusion landscape has multiple competing technological paths.

The mainstream approach globally?

Tokamaks (the donut-shaped reactor design).

Most state-owned “National Team” enterprises in China are betting on Tokamaks.

But Singularity Fusion sees massive untapped potential in the stellarator route—a different magnetic confinement design.

The Core Advantage: Steady-State Operation

Here’s the fundamental difference, explained by CEO Dong Wei (董伟):

Stellarators don’t need plasma currents.

Tokamaks rely on plasma currents to maintain the magnetic confinement.

The problem?

Major disruptions from plasma current instabilities are one of the primary pain points in Tokamak commercialization.

Stellarators avoid this risk entirely.

They have a natural ability for steady-state operation—meaning they can run continuously without the risk of catastrophic disruptions.

Yes, Tokamaks have achieved long-pulse runs of 1,000 seconds in recent breakthroughs.

But there’s still a massive gap between 1,000-second runs and the continuous, stable power generation required for commercial fusion power plants.

That gap is exactly where stellarators have their advantage.

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The Global Fusion Market Is Exploding

To understand why this ¥830 million RMB ($116.2 million USD) seed round is such a big deal, you need to see the bigger market picture.

Market Size Projections

• The global market for superconducting magnet power supplies for controllable nuclear fusion reached $4.73 billion USD by 2025
• Global stellarator device R&D investment surpassed $4.2 billion USD in 2025—a 78% increase from 2023
• The entire global nuclear fusion-related industry market could reach $100 billion USD by 2030

That’s a 20x market expansion in five years.

China’s Growing Share

China isn’t just participating—it’s becoming a major player:

• China’s fusion R&D investment reached ¥48 billion RMB ($6.72 billion USD)
• This accounts for approximately 35% of the global budget
• Private financing for stellarator R&D exceeded 55% for the first time in 2025

Translation: The private sector is now funding more stellarator development than state actors.

That’s a seismic shift in how fusion R&D is being financed.

The Global Infrastructure Race

Globally, there are now over 35 Tokamak and Stellarator devices under construction or planned worldwide.

The industry is moving from theoretical physics to engineering verification and commercial acceleration.

China’s fusion industry chain is becoming increasingly complete, with enterprises covering:

• Superconducting materials
• Cryogenic technology
• Diagnostic controls
• Specialized power supplies
• Vacuum systems

It’s not just one company winning—it’s an entire ecosystem maturing.

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Singularity Fusion’s Three-Stage Roadmap to Commercial Power

The ¥830 million RMB ($116.2 million USD) seed round is funding an aggressive but realistic development strategy.

Stage 1: Short-Term (2025–2030) — Catch Up With Global Leaders

Singularity Fusion is building three devices simultaneously:

• “Xinghe 0”
• “Xinghe 1”
• “Xinghe 2”

The near-term goal is straightforward: by the end of 2025, “Xinghe 0” aims to achieve plasma discharge and verify the capability for over 24 hours of steady-state operation.

That 24-hour milestone matters.

It’s the technical proof point that stellarators can sustain the continuous operation tokamaks struggle with.

Stage 2: Mid-Term (2030–2035) — Ignition Breakthroughs

By 2030, the goal is to reach technical and engineering parity with the world’s leading stellarator: Germany’s Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) device.

That’s the global benchmark.

Matching it would be a massive validation for the Chinese stellarator path.

Stage 3: Long-Term (Post-2035) — Commercial Grid Connection

This is where the real money flows.

Commercial power generation projects are expected to require financing at the ¥10 billion RMB ($1.4 billion USD) level per project or higher.

That’s not seed capital—that’s infrastructure-scale investment.

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The Hedging Strategy: Multiple Bets on Multiple Technologies

Here’s something smart happening in China’s fusion sector right now:

Everyone is hedging their bets across multiple fusion technologies.

You can’t predict which path will win.

So the smart money is betting on multiple horses.

CATL Enters the Fusion Race (Yes, That CATL)

In June 2025, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) (Ningde Shidai 宁德时代, 300750.SZ)—the world’s largest battery manufacturer—made a bold move.

They led a seed round of several hundred million ¥ RMB for Beta Fusion (Beita Jubian 贝塔聚变), which focuses on a completely different fusion approach: Magnetic Inertial Confinement (FRC).

This isn’t a mistake or a distraction for CATL.

This is deliberate portfolio diversification in an emerging sector where the winner-take-all outcome hasn’t been determined yet.

The “Corner-Takeover” Strategy

A representative from CAS Star (Zhongke Chuangxing 中科创星)—one of the lead investors in this round—explained the strategic logic:

“Since the industry has not yet converged on a single technology, a parallel development strategy is necessary.”

The thinking goes like this:

• Tokamaks have more engineering experience and decades of development
• But Stellarators have mature physics with no disruption risk—providing a “corner-takeover” opportunity for China to lead
• By pursuing both paths (and others like FRC), China increases its chances of being first to commercial fusion power

It’s a smart hedge in an uncertain space.

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Why Hefei? The Location Strategy

Singularity Fusion chose Hefei as its headquarters.

This wasn’t arbitrary.

Hefei has:

• Over 70 enterprises in the nuclear fusion supply chain
• Over 80% of the stellarator supply chain can reuse mature infrastructure developed for Tokamaks over decades
• An existing ecosystem of suppliers, expertise, and facilities

When you’re racing to build three experimental devices simultaneously, geographic proximity to suppliers and existing infrastructure isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s a competitive advantage.

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The Reality Check: Why This Still Takes Patience

Let’s be real about something.

Despite all the hype around nuclear fusion—and there’s definitely hype—the current market investment reality is much more modest:

The annual market investment in fusion is currently around ¥10 billion RMB ($1.4 billion USD).

Compare that to semiconductors, and the fusion sector is tiny.

Large-scale commercialization is still 10 to 15 years away.

That means:

• This requires “patient capital” that accepts high uncertainty for long-term value
• Multiple companies will likely fail or pivot
• The first commercial power plant will take longer than current timelines suggest
• But the companies that get it right will be worth extraordinary amounts

That’s why Zijin Mining and Zhongding Group are joining as investors.

They’re thinking in decades, not quarters.

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What This Means for the Fusion Sector

The ¥830 million RMB ($116.2 million USD) seed round for Singularity Fusion signals several things happening simultaneously:

• Capital is flowing freely into fusion companies now, even at the seed stage
• Multiple technology paths are being funded in parallel because the winner hasn’t been determined
• China is serious about capturing fusion leadership, not just participating in the space
• Industrial partnerships matter—the involvement of listed companies legitimizes fusion refreshing as a real industry opportunity
• Stellarators are being treated as a viable competitive path, not a sidetrack

The controllable nuclear fusion race in China just entered a new phase.

The funding, the ecosystem, the technology bets—they’re all pointing toward commercial fusion power being treated as an inevitable industrial transition, not a speculative bet.

The ¥830 million RMB ($116.2 million USD) seed round into Singularity Fusion (Xinghe Jubian 星核聚变) is proof that China’s nuclear fusion sector is accelerating.

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References

• Cailian Press – CLS
• Zijin Mining Group – Zijin Mining
• Anhui Zhongding Holding – Zhongding Group
• Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited – CATL