Canada’s General Fusion announced today that it has agreed to go public by combining with an American special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
The Richmond, BC-based fusion developer plans to merge with Dallas-based Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (Spring Valley) in a deal that values General Fusion at $1 billion USD.
General Fusion is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq once the deal closes, as it follows the same path as Canadian deep technology peer Xanadu, which struck a similar deal in November.
General Fusion is Canada’s entrant in the global race for commercially viable fusion power. It claims this transaction would make it the first publicly traded pure-play fusion company—meaning a company solely focused on fusion power.
The $1-billion USD figure includes approximately $105 million from a committed private investment in public equity (PIPE) with institutional investors, as well as $230 million from Spring Valley’s trust capital, assuming no redemptions.
This appears to mark General Fusion’s third fundraise after staving off a cash crunch in early 2025. Last May, General Fusion shed staff and scaled back its operations amid fundraising challenges. In August, its public plea for investment was answered when the company closed $30 million CAD, largely from existing backers, in a “pay-to-play” deal that allowed it to resume advancing its LM26 fusion demonstration program.
In November, General Fusion closed another $51.5 million CAD in funding that reportedly came with the expectation that it would go public soon.
In a statement, General Fusion CEO Greg Twinney described today’s announcement and associated financing as “the next step in our journey to bringing fusion energy to the grid.”
Nuclear fusion is the physical process that powers the sun and stars. As the world looks to meet growing energy demands and shift away from fossil fuels, there is a quest to harness it as a commercial energy source, because it offers the prospect of abundant, carbon-free power.
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Feature image courtesy General Fusion.