This 24-Year-Old Raised Millions To Solve Energy Problems Using Fusion Technology

Forbes

Twenty-four-year-old JC Btaiche has raised $20 million and signed on Iran’s former top nuclear scientist and former Pentagon officials with an audacious goal: using nuclear fusion to solve all our energy problems.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2024/07/03/fuse-fusion-energy-startup-cia/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, why top nuclear experts and ex-CIA brass

00:05joined a high school grad's tiny fusion startup.

00:09Since the first hydrogen bomb tests in the 1950s,

00:12scientists have struggled to develop a practical fusion energy source,

00:16one that would mimic the reactions that power the sun,

00:19for safe use here on Earth.

00:21The promise is world-changing, an infinite abundance of energy,

00:25vastly more powerful than fossil fuels,

00:28without the associated carbon pollution.

00:31Now, with the help of one of Iran's top nuclear scientists,

00:35a small team of former Pentagon and CIA officials are taking on that goal.

00:40Realistically, it's far off.

00:42Scientific consensus is that viable commercial fusion

00:45is at least a decade away, maybe two.

00:48But in the meantime, the company, called FUSE,

00:51has more immediate-term plans,

00:54using fusion technology to develop radiation testing facilities

00:57that simulate the effects of nuclear weapons on machinery.

01:01FUSE hopes to generate revenue from government contracts

01:04that can support its long-term R&D efforts,

01:07a business model that has excited Silicon Valley investors

01:10like Buckley Ventures and serial entrepreneur Sky Dayton

01:14enough to pour more than $20 million into the company.

01:18Helming the unlikely team of military officials and scientists

01:22is JC Batesh, a high school graduate

01:25who immigrated from Lebanon to North America in 2016

01:29with an eye toward solving one of the world's hardest problems.

01:32He has sold investors and employees on the idea that private industry

01:36can do for commercial fusion what it did for spaceflight,

01:40accelerate progress by solving the $24 billion

01:43National Nuclear Security Administration's, or NNSA's, problems,

01:48along the way to developing a viable fusion reactor.

01:52The 24-year-old Batesh told Forbes,

01:55FUSE wants to become, to the NNSA, what SpaceX is to NASA.

02:00To some, it all seems a bit pie-in-the-sky.

02:04Bjorn Hagelich, a fusion professor at the University of Texas at Austin,

02:08referring to the NASA program that put the first humans on the moon, said,

02:13A fusion power plant will require something akin to the Apollo program.

02:17It's not going to be something that one startup will do.

02:21And then there's Batesh himself,

02:23who, without a background in nuclear science or even a college education,

02:28is taking on such a daunting challenge

02:30with a fraction of the money funding his rivals.

02:33And yet, investors are backing him.

02:36FUSE is currently in talks to raise another $20 million investment

02:39for a Series A funding round.

02:42After signing agreements with nuclear labs Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories,

02:47according to a pitch deck for the funding round,

02:49the company is expected to generate $2 million in revenue this year.

02:54Batesh declined to discuss the nature of the agreements.

02:57A spokesperson for Sandia and Los Alamos labs declined to comment.

03:01Josh Buckley, whose eponymous venture firm invested in FUSE, told Forbes,

03:07The best founders just have this type of inevitability to them.

03:11And I just consistently started seeing JC, over a period of time,

03:15go through multiple brick walls.

03:18Batesh's timing is spot on.

03:20Following a fusion breakthrough at Lawrence Livermore last year,

03:23the Biden administration announced recently it was spending $180 million

03:28to spur development of Fusion Energy,

03:30allocating an additional $46 million to public-private partnerships

03:35with multiple Fusion Energy companies.

03:38Among those partnering with the government is Denver-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems,

03:42which was spun out from MIT and has raised more than $2 billion

03:46from investors like George Soros and Bill Gates.

03:49Another is Seattle-based Zap Energy, also backed by Gates,

03:53and energy giants Shell and Chevron,

03:55which have provided the company more than $200 million.

03:59Both companies are working towards commercially produced Fusion Energy.

04:03OpenAI's Sam Altman is another player in the space,

04:06personally investing $375 million in Helion,

04:10which believes it can deploy a workable fusion power plant by 2028.

04:15Helion signed an energy deal with Microsoft last year.

04:19It's already a wildly competitive space,

04:21but Fuse's backers are bullish on Batesh's idea to scale fusion technology

04:26alongside its radiation testing business.

04:29Sean McKay, a U.S. Air Force veteran and retired colonel

04:32who oversaw foreign military sales and now leads Fuse's government business,

04:37said that Batesh, quote,

04:39"...is surprisingly strategic in his thought process,

04:41and he's built an amazing culture.

04:43That's why I'm taking a chance."

04:47For full coverage, check out David Jeans' piece on Forbes.com.

04:52This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:54Thanks for tuning in.

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