For decades, commercial fusion power has seemed perpetually out of reach. Now two companies are building toward something much more concrete: putting fusion-generated electricity on the grid.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems is building SPARC, a demonstration fusion machine intended to pave the way for its first commercial power plant, ARC. Helion is developing Orion, a 50-megawatt fusion power plant intended to supply electricity to Microsoft beginning in 2028.
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, CFS co-founder and chief science officer Brandon Sorbom and Helion founder and CEO David Kirtley will take the Smart Systems Stage for “Bringing Fusion to the Grid.”
Sorbom co-founded CFS in 2018 with the goal of commercializing fusion energy in time to help combat climate change.
In April, CFS became the first fusion company to apply to PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. electricity market — a necessary step toward eventually connecting ARC to the grid. In July, the company raised another $1 billion, bringing its total funding to $4 billion.
An NSF and NASA Advanced Concepts Fellow, he has expertise in high-Beta plasmas for energy and space propulsion applications and today leads Helion as it works toward commercial fusion power.
In February, Helion announced that its Polaris prototype had heated plasma to 150 million degrees Celsius. Its Series G funding round, at first announced at $465 million in June, closed at $500 million in September.
Their session is one of 200+ sessions across six industry stages, roundtables and breakouts at Disrupt, October 13–15 at Moscone West in San Francisco.