Zap Energy押注无磁体Z-pinch聚变；DOE认证Century里程碑，39千瓦

做的是什么生意

Zap Energy is a Seattle fusion startup building power modules that confine and compress plasma with a sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch — no superconducting magnets or lasers — and Century, its 100 kW-scale repetitive test platform, to prove the plant's pulsed-power, liquid-metal-wall and electrode systems.

启动资金：$130M Series D led by Soros Fund Management, closed October 2024; total funding surpassed $330M

起因

Founded in 2017 by University of Washington professors Uri Shumlak and Brian Nelson with entrepreneur Benj Conway, Zap set out to commercialize sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch research. It joined DOE's Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program in May 2023, betting that engineering repetition — not a single physics breakthrough — is the fastest path to a commercial plant.

经过

Century began operations in June 2024 and within weeks ran 1,080 consecutive plasma shots at 0.1 Hz into a chamber lined with flowing liquid bismuth. In October 2024 Zap closed a $130M Series D led by Soros Fund Management, with new investors including Emerson Collective and Mizuho, taking total funding past $330M. In February 2025 DOE certified Zap's first Milestone Program milestone: three hours of continuous operation with 1,080 shots, each at least 100 kA, in a liquid-metal environment. By September 2025 Century was firing more than one hundred shots at 0.2 Hz with up to 500 kA per pulse, reaching 39 kW average chamber power (57 kW total input) — a 20x gain over the 2024 commissioning run — while firing over 10,000 shots in a year with a 2,500-pound liquid bismuth loop.

可借鉴之处

在资本密集型深科技领域，可信度来自可重复的里程碑：美国能源部认证的运营和10,000次射击能持续吸引资本，而押注——无磁体聚变——仍未得到证明。