Zap Energy

Zap Energy plans to build a compact, low-cost, and scalable fusion reactor using Z-pinch technology. The company’s sheared-flow stabilized (SFS) Z-pinch reactor stabilizes plasma using sheared flows compared to magnetic coils used by conventional Tokamak fusion reactors. An electric current is driven through the flow, creating a magnetic field, which confines and compresses the plasma long enough for fusion reactions to occur. 

Zap Energy’s reactor builds on work first pioneered by the FuZE team at the University of Washington and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In June 2022, Zap Energy created the first plasmas in FuZE-Q. The company claims that its technology is “the least expensive, most compact, most scalable solution with the shortest path to commercially viable fusion”. Zap Energy achieved thermonuclear fusion in 2018 and achieved the first plasmas on its FuZE-Q in May 2023. And as of March 2024, it is focusing on advancing the FuZE-Q. In October 2024, the company unveiled Century, a prototype fusion reactor that operates at 100 KW of input power.

In June 2023, Zap Energy acquired liquidated assets from ICAR, a manufacturer of capacitors and power supply equipment, to support its manufacturing capability in proprietary repetitive pulsed-power technologies.

Funding and financials

In May 2023, Zap was awarded USD 5 million in federal funding from the Department of Energy for its pilot production facility. Prior to this, in June 2022, the company raised USD 160 million in a Series C funding round led by Lowercarbon Capital. In May 2021, Zap Energy raised USD 27.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Addition to advance key technologies relating to its fusion reactor. The company previously raised USD 6.5 million in a Series A funding round in July 2020.