Ant Group joins China’s nuclear fusion funding surge as AI fuels energy demand

Investment in nuclear fusion power is heating up in China, with Ant Group placing a bet on the developing technology as energy becomes a new front in the US-China artificial intelligence race.

Hefei-based Xeonova said on Monday it had raised hundreds of millions of yuan in a pre-A funding round led by Ant Group. Other investors include Hidden Hill Capital and Zijin Mining Group. Ant Group is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post.

Fusion, the process of combining two light atoms into a heavier one to release energy, releases vast amounts of energy.

The process currently used in nuclear power plants worldwide is fission, in which uranium atoms are split apart to generate energy. Nuclear fusion instead combines atoms to release a safe, near-limitless source of energy without creating the problems of radioactive waste.

Capital has increasingly flowed into the sector in recent years, driven by AI’s insatiable demand for power and the need to decarbonise to combat climate change. By the end of July, 12 Chinese fusion firms had raised a combined 14.7 billion yuan (US$2 billion), according to venture capital tracker ITjuzi.

The largest among them, China Fusion Energy, a subsidiary of state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation, was set up in July with 11.5 billion yuan of registered capital from seven state-owned enterprises.