Sumitomo Corporation of Americas (SCOA) announced its investment in TAE Technologies (TAE), a fusion power company and world leader in hydrogen-boron fusion research. The investment will help fund the construction of TAE's next research reactor, "Copernicus" and accelerate SCOA's implementation of fusion power in Japan and Asia as part of the company's strategy to help realize a carbon-neutral society.

"We look forward to being a partner in bringing TAE's clean energy solutions to the Asian market, which will be paramount to sustaining local economies without impacting our planet," said Sandro Hasegawa, General Manager, Energy Innovation Initiative Americas at Sumitomo Corporation Of Americas. "We are pleased to support TAE's groundbreaking fusion technology to create safe, sustainable energy sources across multiple industries and applications."

Since 1998, TAE has worked toward delivering cost-competitive, environmentally benign hydrogen-boron fusion. Its fifth-generation reactor, Norman, was unveiled in 2017 and designed to keep plasma stable at 30 million degrees Celsius.

Fusion reactions are the same source of energy found on the Sun. TAE's technology recreates this reaction to produce energy that is non-radioactive, creating the fastest, most practical, and economically competitive solution to bring abundant carbon-free energy to the grid. TAE's Copernicus reactor is designed to demonstrate the viability of achieving net energy generation with TAE's advanced beam-driven field-reversed configuration (FRC) – the penultimate step on TAE's path to commercialize clean fusion power.

"The caliber and interest of our investors validates our significant technical progress and supports our goal to begin commercialization of fusion by the end of this decade," said Michl Binderbauer, CEO of TAE Technologies. "Global energy demand is growing exponentially, and we have a moral obligation to do our utmost to develop a baseload power solution that is safe, carbon-free, and economically viable."