Kyoto Fusioneering signs fusion MoUs with Proxima and Focused Energy

Kyoto Fusioneering, a Japanese fusion technology company, signed memoranda of understanding with two fusion developers based in Germany on October 28, 2026. Under the Proxima Fusion memorandum, signed in Tokyo during Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to Japan, the two companies "will continue and expand joint work on next-generation gyrotrons for plasma heating and on fuel cycle technologies." The Focused Energy memorandum is looser: the companies "intend to explore cooperation" on laser fusion plants, including fuel and target technologies, the tritium fuel cycle, materials for extreme conditions, and diagnostics.

The two partners sit on opposite sides of Germany's fusion bet. Proxima is developing Alpha, a stellarator demonstrator targeted for the early 2030s, while Focused Energy aims to build a laser fusion power plant in Biblis by the mid-2030s. Germany's new milestone program in principle targets at least one of each type for support in its second phase, so Kyoto Fusioneering now has a memorandum with a developer in each lane.

Kyoto Fusioneering Europe, the company's subsidiary in Karlsruhe, would play "a central role" in the Focused Energy collaboration within Germany's fusion research and innovation ecosystem. Under the Proxima memorandum, the parent will contribute to the research ministry's national Fusion Hubs initiative. Neither release describes the memoranda as binding or puts a value or a delivery schedule on the work.

Proxima's chief executive, Francesco Sciortino, says the global race to fusion "will be won in factories and supply chains," and his company signed with a second Japanese supplier the same day. Its memorandum with Fujikura has the two evaluate the requirements for making high-temperature superconducting tape in Germany; Proxima anticipates needing about 20,000 kilometers of tape for Alpha and around 40,000 kilometers for each planned Stellaris power plant.

Kyoto Fusioneering has a British thread too: in September it committed up to £3 million in the UK fusion sector to build a breeder blanket experiment, as covered in our UK Fusion Week roundup.