The archive · Climate & Energy · Technical decision · 2019–2026
Marvel Fusion's laser bet: €113M round, first ATLAS fusion facility at CSU
Marvel Fusion is betting laser-driven fusion can go industrial: a €113M Series B and the $150M+ ATLAS facility at Colorado State, on track for 2026 completion.
Marvel Fusion
What the business is
Marvel Fusion designs laser-driven inertial fusion power plants — high-energy lasers fire at a fuel target — and is industrializing the lasers themselves.
Starting capital：EUR 113M Series B (extended March 2025); total funding EUR 385M — EUR 170M private, EUR 215M in public cooperation projects; company later cited USD 400M+
How it started
Founded in Munich in 2019 by Moritz von der Linden, Marvel Fusion bet that high-repetition, high-energy lasers could make inertial fusion commercially viable, building on the target-energy-gain result demonstrated at the National Ignition Facility in 2022. It raised venture rounds from European investors and steadily added industrial partners.
What happened
In March 2025 the company extended its Series B by €50M to €113M with EQT Ventures, Siemens Energy Ventures and the EIC Fund, bringing total funding to EUR 385M (EUR 170M private, EUR 215M in public cooperation projects) — the most of any European fusion company. Construction of the ATLAS laser facility with Colorado State University began in Fort Collins; CSU topped out the 77,626-square-foot building in April 2026, on track for substantial completion in December 2026. Siemens Energy is co-designing the fusion power-plant concept.
How it ended up
Still privately held and scaling: ATLAS is the first large laser-fusion facility built under a commercial university partnership, slated for completion in December 2026, while the company builds two laser prototypes and industrial partnerships for scaled laser production.
Background
Marvel Fusion, founded in Munich in 2019, is betting that laser-driven inertial fusion can be industrialized: instead of one giant reactor, high-energy lasers firing at fuel targets, with the lasers themselves manufactured at scale. Its thesis is that fusion's real bottleneck is industrial capability, not physics alone.
The company paired equity with infrastructure: its March 2025 Series B extension brought the round to €113M (EQT Ventures, Siemens Energy Ventures, EIC Fund) and total funding to EUR 385M — the most of any European fusion startup. The money backs the ATLAS laser facility being built with Colorado State University (a $150M+ project, budgeted at $160M by the university) plus a fusion power-plant concept design with Siemens Energy.
ATLAS topped out in April 2026: a 77,626-square-foot building that will house three of the world's most powerful laser systems, on track for substantial completion in December 2026. Marvel frames the facility as the industrial testbed that will prove lasers can fire fast and reliably enough to make fusion a power business.
What has to be true
- Marvel tied its round to concrete industrial partners — Siemens Energy for the plant, CSU for the facility — so the money bought physical infrastructure, not just payroll.
- The EIC Fund's first fusion equity investment signaled European policy support for laser fusion as an 'industrial challenge' rather than pure science.
- Building ATLAS at a university spread cost and risk while giving the company access to existing laser research and a talent pipeline.
- The bet is unproven: no net-energy demonstration yet, and the economics of laser production at power-plant scale still lie ahead.
What can be applied
A startup can buy credibility with hard infrastructure: tying an equity round to a university flagship facility turned a laser-fusion thesis into a construction project with a completion date.
Aftermath
As of September 2026 Marvel Fusion is building two laser prototypes, progressing the Siemens Energy power-plant concept, and pushing ATLAS toward completion at the end of 2026. Its EUR 385M total funding makes it the best-funded European fusion company, but revenue and a net-energy demonstration still lie ahead.
Sources
- Marvel Fusion extends Series B to EUR 113m with commitments from EQT Ventures, Siemens Energy and European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund
- CSU tops out one of world's most advanced laser research facilities, on track for 2026 completion
- Marvel Fusion extends Series B funding by €50m
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe what you are building, and see who is betting on the same thing.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card