Recently, Chen Rui, Founder and CEO of Startorus Fusion, accepted an exclusive interview with 21st Century Business Herald, offering in-depth insights into the company’s RMB 1 billion Series A financing round, technical routes, engineering progress, commercialization logic and future development plans.
Since its establishment four years ago, Startorus Fusion has been committed to a compact repetitive reconnection controlled fusion technology solution characterized by “miniaturization and cost-effectiveness”, and has continuously advanced the implementation of related projects with high efficiency. The company has successfully built and put into operation the SUNIST-2 experimental apparatus in collaboration with Tsinghua University, and is currently steadily advancing the design and construction of CTRFR-1, its next-generation engineering verification apparatus. This series of solid engineering milestones is continuously accelerating the process of controlled nuclear fusion moving from the laboratory to commercial application.
Below is the original text from 21st Century Business Herald:
On January 12, Startorus Fusion, a start-up dedicated to controlled nuclear fusion, announced the completion of a new round of financing worth RMB 1 billion. This round of financing was led by Shanghai STVC Group and Shanghai Future Industry Fund, both under the umbrella of Shanghai State-owned Capital Investment, as well as Shanghai CCI Investment Co., Ltd. and JIADING VENTURE CAPITAL as co-lead investors. Bank of China Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd., Ningbo Xichen Private Fund Management Co., Ltd., SUMMITVIEW CAPITAL and other institutions participated in the investment and continued their follow-on investment.
At this critical juncture where controlled nuclear fusion is moving from the “experimental reactor” phase to the “engineering reactor” phase, the funding not only affirms the company’s engineering progress, but also reflects the capital market’s continued optimism about the prospects of next-generation energy sources.
Only four years after its establishment, this start-up has efficiently completed the construction and operation of SUNIST-2 (the No. 0 Experimental Apparatus) in collaboration with Tsinghua University, and is steadily advancing the CTRFR-1 Engineering Verification Apparatus. According to its plan, the company expects to fully complete engineering verification around 2028, initiate the construction of a commercial demonstration reactor, and strive to build a fusion demonstration reactor capable of generating electricity around 2032.
As one of the few private fusion enterprises in China that publicly disclose phased engineering milestones, the company has presented a relatively clear roadmap and well-defined technical targets. Its steady pace of engineering progress stands out particularly among domestic peers, and also provides a valuable development model for the technological industrialization in China’s fusion energy sector.
Two Entrepreneurs Born in the 1980s, Pioneering in Controlled Nuclear Fusion
If we only look at the business registration information, Startorus Fusion was born in 2021. Yet behind it lies a two-decade-long technological trajectory: starting from Tan Yi’s research at Tsinghua University in 2002, progressing to the joint industrialization drive by Tan Yi and Chen Rui in 2019, and culminating in the establishment of the company.
The picture shows the founding team of Startorus Fusion, with Chen Rui on the left and Tan Yi on the right. Provided by the interviewee.
Before starting their entrepreneurial journey, Tan Yi’s Tsinghua University Fusion Laboratory had been researching controlled nuclear fusion for many years. The two founders had long maintained academic exchanges with top international teams from MIT and other institutions, and had noticed the entrepreneurial boom in the US commercial fusion field as early as 2018.
When two individuals born in the 1980s decided to establish Startorus Fusion and promote the transformation of scientific research achievements, they chose Xi’an as the starting point for their founding team. The intuitive reason is that an old classmate who is responsible for the operation of Tsinghua Holdings Technology Innovation Western Innovation Accelerator Center in Xi’an can help the team solve complex matters such as initial registration, policy coordination, and software and hardware construction. However, for a startup team that is “building from scratch” to develop controllable nuclear fusion, the deeper attraction comes from the city’s own industrial structure and innovation environment:
Strong Pool of Engineers: Xi’an has long focused on the fields of military industry, aerospace, and precision manufacturing, and boasts a large number of engineering talents with practical experience in “large scientific facilities”;
Strong Pool of Engineers: Xi’an has long focused on the fields of military industry, aerospace, and precision manufacturing, and boasts a large number of engineering talents with practical experience in “large scientific facilities”;
Distinct Cost Structure Advantage: the labor cost of engineering talents at the same level in Xi’an is significantly lower than that in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, which is crucial for fusion entrepreneurship that requires long-term large-scale investment;
Opening of the Policy Support Window: The Qinchuangyuan Innovation-driven Platform has clearly identified “future energy” as a key direction, and local hard technology investment institutions such as CASSTAR continue to delve deeply into this field.
After its establishment, Startorus Fusion has demonstrated efficient engineering execution capabilities. The company transformed from an empty factory building to completing the assembly and operation of the SUNIST-2 apparatus in collaboration with Tsinghua University in just 279 days, which is the fastest speed reported publicly. Subsequently, within less than a year, it successfully verified the feasibility of its original repeated reconnection scheme.
In terms of technical route selection, Startorus Fusion adopts a compact, repeatable reconnection controllable fusion technology scheme based on a high-temperature superconducting strong magnetic field spherical tokamak, featuring multi-stroke repeated operation and plasma current self-magnetic field reconnection heating. The industry generally believes that this direction has strong commercialization potential in the future. In an exclusive interview with reporters from 21st Century Business Herald, Chen Rui, founder and CEO of Startorus Fusion, summarized this route as “miniaturization + economy”.
In his view, if controlled fusion is to truly enter the market, the electricity it generates must be competitive with thermal power, wind power, and photovoltaic power. “Hitting the target of ¥0.10 per kilowatt-hour” is the key threshold. Compared to the traditional technology route costing billions of yuan, the budget for the Construction Verification Apparatus by Startorus Fusion(CTRFR-1) is about 1 billion yuan. This reflects the engineering philosophy that the team has adhered to from the beginning: “Prove feasibility with as little money as possible” —it must be critical enough, yet as “small” as possible.
Under this logic, the future application scenarios envisioned by the Startorus Fusion are also more flexible: a fusion reactor with a diameter of eight meters and a height of about ten meters can not only constitute an AI computing power center or an energy room for community power supply, but also serve as a power source for medium-to-large offshore platforms.
For instance, in the foreseeable future, landing on offshore platforms in a sufficiently miniaturized and economical manner will be a highly imaginative aspect of fusion commercial competition.
Scientist Entrepreneurship in the Perspective of An Economics PhD
Unlike most founding teams with purely scientific backgrounds, Startorus Fusion boasts a CEO with a cross-disciplinary background. Chen Rui graduated from Tsinghua University with a bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Engineering and Technology, and later obtained a master’s and doctoral degree in Economics from the University of Sydney. Upon returning to China, he served as an assistant professor, associate professor, and professor at the School of Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics.
In his view, one of the core challenges for scientists embarking on entrepreneurship lies in their ability to navigate complex interactions and make strategic choices.
“Business, in essence, is a game.” Facing multiple parties including investors, governments, supply chains and teams, business founders must constantly coordinate between goals, pace, and resources every day. Every resource allocation directly affects the efficiency of project progress.
The picture shows the SUNIST-2 apparatus jointly constructed by Startorus Fusion and Tsinghua University. Provided by the interviewee.
The first step that Startorus Fusion encountered in its entrepreneurial journey was the “game theory dilemma” of intellectual property rights. For founders Chen Rui and Tan Yi, this was not just a mere formality, but rather a need to find a balance within the institutional framework: they had to complete the transformation to legally establish the company, while also striving to secure the most favorable risk-return guarantee for their alma mater.
Therefore, they designed an innovative option plan for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, achieving a balance between minimizing the school’s risk and maximizing potential returns.
Furthermore, Chen Rui believes that when scientists start their own businesses, they should not only focus on technology or policy windows. Especially in long-cycle industries like controlled nuclear fusion, “proving the feasibility of key nodes with the least amount of money” is the true way to survive.
This means the goal must be small enough, and big enough—small enough to lower the financing threshold, and big enough to constitute a real milestone. For Startorus Fusion, this goal is “to heat plasma to 100 million degrees and make it run stably”. Once this is achieved, it will be possible to prove to all stakeholders that this route can lead to electricity generation.
This mindset also extends to the collaboration between Startorus Fusion, capital, and supply chain.
After the company settled in Xi’an, as one of the earliest investors, CASSTAR not only provided continuous support in financing but also invested in upstream and downstream industries around the core needs of Startorus Fusion. This allowed Startorus Fusion to obtain a more stable supply base with the collaborative mechanism formed by “common shareholders” despite limited orders.
Future Planning: Leverage Regional Collaborative Advantages to Accelerate the Commercialization Process
After several years of rapid development, Startorus Fusion has also observed that the external environment is undergoing drastic changes——from the US commercial fusion companies raising hundreds of millions of dollars in financing, to China writing nuclear fusion energy into the “15th Five-Year Plan” proposal, and then to enterprises from both countries aiming at the key nodes around 2027-2028, the competitive pace of the global fusion industry is accelerating simultaneously.
“Those knocking on the door now are indeed those with money,” said Chen Rui. Unlike the early years when more than half of the visitors were merely “here to learn,” the investment institutions visiting the company this year are usually determined to enter the market, and even hope to secure a timely position in the controllable nuclear fusion race. This change is also a strong testament to the industry’s transition from the “from 0 to 1” stage to the “engineering competition period”.
For Startorus Fusion, the new round of financing marks the starting point of the next phase. From university laboratories to engineering apparatus, and then from engineering apparatus to commercial demonstration reactors, this team still needs to undergo several rounds of technical verification, capital coordination, and industrial collaboration. However, both Chen Rui and Tan Yi are well aware that what truly determines the future is the “execution ability” at each key juncture.
After this round of financing, Startorus Fusion will build the next-generation fusion apparatus capable of achieving fusion reaction conditions in Jiading, Shanghai, focusing on the engineering verification of fusion technology and promoting breakthroughs in core technologies such as high-temperature superconducting magnets and plasma control.
Choosing Shanghai is Precisely Because of Its Irreplaceable Geographical Advantages:
Talent and Research Ecosystem: Shanghai boasts a network of top universities, research institutions, and international talents, providing support for enterprises to build interdisciplinary R&D teams and engage in high-level collaborations.
Financial and Capital Hub: As an international financial center, Shanghai boasts an active venture capital ecosystem and diverse capital channels, which can meet the continuous capital needs of enterprises in their commercialization process.
High-end Manufacturing Clusters: The industrial clusters in the Yangtze River Delta region, specializing in complex system integration, advanced processes, and high-end equipment, provide a solid foundation for enterprise R&D of key components and supply chain collaboration.
Open Demonstration Platform: Shanghai boasts rich experience in undertaking the construction of national major scientific and technological infrastructure and international scientific and technological cooperation, which facilitates enterprises to connect with the global innovation network, carry out cross-sector technology integration, and build early demonstration scenarios for the commercial application of fusion energy in the future.
In the future, Startorus Fusion will continue to leverage the synergistic advantages of Xi’an and Shanghai to accelerate the commercialization process of fusion energy.
“This is a long-distance race with a known end,” said Chen Rui. The key to the industrialization of fusion lies in whether the engineering methods can be implemented and which team can overcome technical difficulties and deliver results on schedule. “As long as the engineering capabilities are sufficient and all links are executed in place, the goal of controllable nuclear fusion is expected to be achieved.”
(Author: Zhao Na Editor: Lin Kun)
