Last year, fusion power startup General Fusion shut down after struggling to raise funding At least 25% of its employees before Received a $22 million Lifeline investment When it comes to thinking about how to keep the company afloat.

Today, General Fusion revealed its survival plan: It will go public through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition firm, Spring Valley IIICombined with additional investment from institutional investors. It’s a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for a company whose CEO wrote a public letter last year pleading for funding.

If the deal closes as planned, General Fusion could receive up to $335 million from the transaction, more than double what it sought to raise last year before landing a $22 million lifeline.

The transaction will value the combined company at about $1 billion, General Fusion said. Dr. before the announcement of the merger. Fusion Startup, which was founded in 2002, was earlier Raised over $440 millionAccording to Pitchbook.

General Fusion plans to use the money to complete its demonstration reactor, Lawson Machine 26 (LM26). The device uses a method called “inertial confinement,” which works by compressing a fuel pellet until its atoms fuse together, releasing energy in the process. The National Ignition Facility used inertial confinement in it Successful fusion testA laser is used to bombard the fuel pellets to release the compressive force.

LM26 avoids lasers though. Instead, it uses steam-driven pistons that drive a wall of liquid lithium metal inward to compress the fuel pellet. That liquid lithium is then circulated through a heat exchanger, which creates steam to spin a generator. By avoiding the expensive lasers or superconducting magnets that other fusion reactor designs require, General Fusion hopes to build a fusion power plant for less. But first the company needs to prove its approach works.

Last year, before it disclosed its financial problems, General Fusion said that in 2026, LM26 would hit scientific breakeven, where a fusion reaction produces more energy than it needs to start. Scientific breakeven is a key milestone, although different and easier to achieve than commercial breakeven, where the fusion reaction releases enough energy to export electricity to the grid. General Fusion did not respond to a request asking if its timeline had changed.

The acquiring firm, Spring Valley, is a specialist in reverse mergers with energy companies. It previously took NuScale Power, a small modular nuclear reactor company, public in a deal that has seen its stock fall more than 50% from its peak last year. The firm is also in the midst of completing a merger with Eagle Energy Metals, a uranium mining company that is reportedly developing its own SMR.

General Fusion is not the first fusion company to go public. In December, TAE Technologies announced that it would Merged with Trump Media and Technology Group A deal values ​​the combined company at more than $6 billion.

The common thread connecting these deals is of course the data center. Expecting them to swallow About 300% more energy by 2035According to BloombergNEF, and General Fusion clearly points to the growing data center energy demand Merger announcement.

But the company also points to broader electrification trends, including EVs and electric heating, which could increase overall electricity demand by up to 50% by 2035. It’s a reminder that, while the Trump administration has expressed doubts about an electrified future, other countries are moving forward. While general fusion may face technical challenges, trends in the energy world suggest that if it can deliver fusion power at a reasonable cost, it will find plenty of willing buyers.