Laser Fusion Startup Xcimer Receives Up to $30.5 Million in Milestone-Based Funding from U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. excimer laser inertial confinement fusion company Xcimer Energy recently announced that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to receive up to $30.5 million in funding support through the DOE's “Milestone-based Fusion Development Program.” The funds will be disbursed in installments based on the progress achieved toward predetermined R&D milestones.

Previously, in June 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy formally approved the preliminary conceptual design and technology development roadmap milestones for Xcimer's fusion power plant architecture, “Athena.” The “Athena” architecture is specifically designed for continuous operation, industrial-scale capacity, and a self-sustaining fuel cycle, deeply integrating the company's proprietary excimer gas laser platform with target injection, the fusion reaction chamber, the tritium breeding blanket, and the power generation system from the engineering foundation up.

This funding builds on Xcimer's successful completion of its first 18-month budget period milestones. The company stated that the core tasks of the next phase will focus on full-scale subsystem bench testing, validation of key engineering parameters, and engineering preparations for building an integrated demonstration device for the entire power plant.

In February of this year, Xcimer publicly released its laser inertial confinement fusion commercialization roadmap; subsequently in June, it announced that its prototype laser test system, “Phoenix,” had officially begun operation, calling it the world's largest privately owned laser system. According to its overall commercialization timeline, the company plans to achieve fusion power grid connection by the mid-2030s.

In terms of its technical approach, Xcimer is fundamentally different from the traditional inertial confinement route that uses hundreds of solid-state laser beams and costly solid-state optical mirrors. The company employs more cost-effective excimer gas lasers, radiation-resistant gas optics, and a compact dual-beamline symmetric architecture, aiming to stably deliver megajoule-class laser pulse energy to the fusion target chamber in an economical, high-repetition-rate manner.

U.S. Department of Energy Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil and Xcimer co-founder and CEO Conner Galloway both stated that this milestone support mechanism successfully combines the efficient execution capabilities of private capital with national strategic-level frontier technology development, accelerating advanced laser R&D, fusion manufacturing equipment breakthroughs, and the cultivation of the entire industrial supply chain, while ensuring that most commercial investment and risk remain with private entities.