Canada’s General Fusion to become publicly traded company

General Fusion has entered into a definitive business combination agreement with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. (SVAC) that would make General Fusion the first publicly traded pure-play fusion firm, the company announced on January 22. The business combination is projected to be completed in mid-2026.

Funding future progress: General Fusion said it intends to use proceeds from the transaction to fully fund its Lawson Machine 26 (LM26) magnetized target fusion (MTF) demonstration machine, which is operating at the company's headquarters near Vancouver, British Columbia. The goal of the LM26 program is to demonstrate and de-risk MTF technology "in a commercially relevant way," the company said.

The device was assembled in December 2024, achieved its first plasma in February 2025, and its first plasma compression in April 2025.

General Fusion's aim is to commercialize a fusion concept that uses a liquid lithium wall and mechanical compression. As designed, that lithium wall would simultaneously shield the fusion vessel, produce tritium fuel through neutron interactions, and capture heat. The liquid metal would then circulate to a heat exchanger and produce steam to drive a turbine.

About SVAC: SVAC is part of a group of investment vehicles that was formed for purposes of acquisitions and mergers with energy and decarbonization companies. During the last three decades, the SVAC team has closed more than 50 energy and decarbonization transactions and has contributed to the creation of 17 publicly traded companies. It recently completed a business combination with NuScale Power and announced a pending merger with Eagle Energy Metals.

The General Fusion-SVAC business combination has an equity value of about $1 billion, according to General Fusion.