Inertia Enterprises Aims for Decade Commercialization of Fusion, Leveraging LLNL's 1.5x Energy Gain Milestone

San Francisco – Inertia Enterprises, a new private fusion power startup, has been launched by a team of prominent leaders in technology and science, including Twilio co-founder and ex-CEO Jeff Lawson. The company's mission is to commercialize fusion energy within the next decade, building directly on the historic fusion ignition breakthrough achieved at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 2022.

Lawson announced the venture on social media, stating, > "Today I’m excited to announce my new venture: Inertia Enterprises. Along with my co-founders Dr. Annie Kritcher and @MikeDunne_LCLS, our mission is to commercialize fusion energy with the most direct, lowest-scientific risk path available." Dr. Andrea "Annie" Kritcher, a key figure in the LLNL ignition experiments, and Professor Mike Dunne, a fusion power plant designer from Stanford University, join Lawson in this endeavor.

The formation of Inertia Enterprises follows the groundbreaking scientific achievement at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) on December 5, 2022. This milestone marked the first time a controlled fusion experiment produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to initiate it. Specifically, the NIF experiment delivered 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of laser energy to a target, resulting in 3.15 MJ of fusion energy output, demonstrating a 1.5x energy gain.

Inertia's strategy is to scale up the industrial base for laser inertial fusion, leveraging the proven science from LLNL. The company plans to develop a new generation of mass-produced, low-cost lasers and fuel targets. Lawson emphasized, > "Standing on the shoulders of giants, we see a clear path from this big science experiment to commercial energy by scaling up laser inertial fusion."

While the NIF breakthrough validated the scientific basis for inertial fusion energy, the current NIF laser system, which is the size of three football fields, is not suitable for commercialization due to its scale and energy consumption. Professor Dunne acknowledged this challenge, stating that Inertia aims to combine LLNL's transformative results with modern laser technologies from the semiconductor industry to convert decades of research into a commercial reality. The company has partnered with LLNL on research agreements and licensed nearly 200 patents.

The ultimate goal is to build a GW-scale fusion pilot plant capable of powering over a million people, using only water and lithium annually. This ambitious plan aligns with the broader industry momentum towards fusion commercialization, which has seen increased private investment and national strategies following the 2022 ignition. Inertia Enterprises seeks to provide a limitless, safe, and clean baseload energy source for the future.