Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a fusion power startup, may go public in the next two to three years. This follows the appointment of Lorence Kim as the company's new Chief Financial Officer this week.
Kim previously served as CFO at Moderna, a biotech company he helped take public in December 2018. He stated that he sees "something very familiar" in CFS, comparing fusion today to where mRNA was a decade ago: "scientifically real, commercially yet-to-be-proven, and closer than the consensus thinks."
CFS is making progress on its Sparc demonstration reactor, now targeting a launch later this year. The company hopes Sparc will achieve scientific breakeven, producing more energy than required to start the reaction, by next year. CFS has also begun work on its commercial-scale power plant, Arc, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, with a goal for it to be operational in the early 2030s.
The company has raised $4 billion from investors over the last seven years, including $1 billion recently. Christine Dunn, head of external communications at CFS, noted that Kim's arrival does not necessarily mean IPO preparations are underway.