Realta Fusion, Inertia Enterprises select HQ locations
Two nuclear fusion companies are setting up shop in disused industrial buildings. Realta Fusion just named a Madison, Wis., location for its “Realta Forge.” Meanwhile, last week, Inertia Enterprises announced the opening of its new headquarters in Livermore, Calif.
Magnetic mirror fusion in Wisconsin: Realta Fusion has received financial commitments from the state of Wisconsin and the city of Madison that involve investments and incentives totaling as much as $55 million for the development of a new corporate headquarters and fusion research facility at OM Station in Madison, a former Oscar Mayer plant.
Realta was spun out of the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2022. The company is developing a fusion energy system based on the magnetic mirror fusion concept, in which high-temperature plasma is confined between two high-field superconducting magnets.
The former OM Station in Madison, Wis., is the future home of Realta Fusion.
Realta announced earlier this month that it had achieved direct energy conversion at the Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror (WHAM), powering a lightbulb. WHAM is a prototype magnetic mirror fusion device on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus.
Wisconsin and Madison have offered an estimated $37.5 million in state sales and use tax exemptions, as much as $15 million in performance-based enterprise zone tax credits from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and $2.8 million in tax increment financing from Madison for job creation at the facility. Realta expects more than 500 jobs will be created.
With financial commitments secured for the Realta Forge, the company plans to start constructing its prototype magnetic mirror fusion device, called Hammir, before the end of the year.
Before deciding on OM Station for its headquarters/R&D facility, Realta had considered other locations, including sites in Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Tennessee.
Realta CEO Kieran Furlong said, “We spent the better part of the past two years searching across the country to find the most favorable business environment and the most attractive site to build our R&D facility, and we found it in our own backyard. The state of Wisconsin and the city of Madison have made it clear they understand the promise of fusion energy and share our vision for the future, and now they've thrown their lot in together to make that vision a reality.”
From factory to lasers in California: Inertia’s new headquarters in Livermore is a 50,000-square-foot former factory that will “house the world’s first fusion fuel target factory and the world’s most advanced high-energy laser system,” according to the company. Inertia intends to use this facility to develop methods for rapid fabrication of fuel targets and other technologies needed for the large scales of a commercial fusion power plant.
Inertia Enterprises was founded in August 2025 with the objective of commercializing the laser-based approach to fusion power that achieved ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility in 2022.
Inertia celebrates the ribbon-cutting at its new facility earlier this month. (Photo: Inertia)
Inertia is developing mass-produced advanced lasers and fuel targets based on LLNL’s fusion ignition findings, and it is partnering with LLNL in a multifaceted relationship that includes research agreements. In February, Inertia announced that it had raised $450 million in its Series A fundraising round.
CEO Jeff Lawson noted that the “facility has gone from an empty, derelict factory floor to a frontier laser and fusion target facility in a mere six months, setting the pace at which Inertia operates. Livermore is where fusion ignition first became a reality. Today, we’re building on that foundation to turn proven physics into commercial fusion energy.”
Inertia Cofounder and chief scientist Andrea “Annie” Kritcher stressed that it takes “an extraordinary combination of scientific expertise, engineering talent, and close collaboration to move fusion from breakthrough experiments to a practical energy source. Being part of the Livermore innovation ecosystem gives us the opportunity to work alongside some of the world’s leading fusion experts while building a team focused on delivering fusion power to the grid.”
