Germany's SPRIND opens fusion milestone program with up to €500M to 2029

Germany will pay fusion start-ups to reach a blueprint, and it would like shares in them along the way. The Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND) launched a milestone-based fusion program on October 7, 2026 on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), with €500 million to be made available by 2029 from the Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality. In the longer term, SPRIND says, total public funding is to rise to as much as €2.5 billion. Applications close on January 13, 2027 at 18:00 CET, according to the call for submissions, and first financing can follow from 2027.

The finish line is a document. The program's final milestone is a Technical Design Report, with a Cost Book based on German cost standards, for a demonstration plant, due by 2037 at the latest; the program itself runs until December 31, 2037 at the latest. The call sets that plant's bar at net energy gain "at least in the form of usable heat," a design for a theoretical engineering gain above 1, and integrated testing of the essential systems a later power plant needs, in particular a closed tritium cycle. Building the demonstration plant is outside the program, as are the first industrial-scale plant of at least 100 MW net and everything after it.

Getting there takes two phases. Phase 1 funds critical sub-technologies for several companies in parallel and the preparation of technology demonstrators; Phase 2 co-finances the demonstrators themselves, and the decision on which ones to support is to be made "in principle" in 2029. The call warns that the number of participants in Phase 2 "will likely need to be reduced due to budget constraints, even without formally missing technical milestones." SPRIND director Rafael Laguna de la Vera said the agency is "pursuing several approaches in parallel – knowing that not all of them will ultimately succeed."

Who can apply, and what is new

The money is meant to stay German. The program targets start-ups and young companies, and among the call's eight admission requirements are a significant place of business in Germany, with value creation from program funds predominantly located there; fusion energy as the primary business; and a credible aim to build a fusion power plant in Germany. Two technologies get the inside lane: the call says the federal Fusion Action Plan provides support primarily for evaluating demonstrators for laser fusion or a stellarator, and in principle at least one of each is targeted for support in Phase 2.

Germany has companies in both lanes, and SPRIND is already an investor in one. In July 2026 it joined Proxima Fusion's €411 million round, which it said backs Alpha, Proxima's net-energy stellarator demonstrator near Munich. On the laser side, Marvel Fusion, with locations in Munich and Fort Collins, Colorado, reports €385 million in private and public funding, and Focused Energy lists addresses in Darmstadt, Berlin and Austin, Texas.

The demonstrators have been promised for a year. SPRIND says the program is part of the Fusion Action Plan the federal cabinet adopted on October 1, 2025, and will carry out the technology demonstrators that plan announced. The plan itself said the government would examine supporting demonstrators for a stellarator or laser fusion, including helping finance an industrial demonstrator that could double as a successor to Wendelstein 7-X. It earmarked up to €755 million from the infrastructure special fund in this legislative period for research infrastructure and technology demonstrators. October 7 turned that into an open call with a budget, a rulebook and a deadline. SPRIND's release and call do not say whether the €500 million comes out of the €755 million or on top of it.

Equity where Washington writes checks

The structure is where Germany parts ways with the US. The Department of Energy's Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program was launched in September 2022 and announced its first $46 million, for the first 18 months, to eight companies on May 31, 2023. Awardees could take fixed, pre-negotiated payments upon verified milestone completion and were expected to cover more than half the total project cost with non-federal resources, according to a retrospective by former DOE program staff, which calls those payments non-dilutive. Xcimer Energy has reached the program's second budget period: it finalized up to $30.5 million more on October 6.

Germany wants a share of the upside for its risk. SPRIND's call wants public money to flow mainly "through financing instruments that do not constitute pure, non-repayable grants," to avoid "the state bearing the downside risk exclusively without participating in the upside." Phase 1 can mix equity, convertible loans, loans and grants, but by its end funds "shall primarily be used in the form of equity investments." The goal is to cap each participant's cumulative program financing at approximately 50% of the investment needed to reach the final milestone, but the count is weighted: money invested at market conditions, such as stakes taken pari passu alongside private investors, counts at a factor of only 0.2, while aid counts in full. The call also intends at least 30% of program funds to be awarded aid-free in the long term.

Washington's version has run short of money, by its own designers' account. Congress authorized $415 million for the US program for fiscal 2021 through 2027, and the authors count about $200 million appropriated over the five years through fiscal 2026, with the fiscal 2025 share estimated from the prior year. As of September 10, 2026, it had obligated $115.1 million and paid $36.5 million across its eight awardees, per the retrospective. Its authors conclude that the appropriated budget "remains an order of magnitude short of program needs." One company already straddles both systems: Focused Energy, a laser fusion awardee in the US program, had $7.5 million obligated and $2.15 million paid by that date. The German money carries its own asterisk. The call says the provision of all funds "is subject to the availability and budget allocation of corresponding funds," and continuation after 2029 is "planned, but is also subject to budget reservation."

Outlook

The first test is the January 13, 2027 deadline, and the first financing decisions can come in 2027. The harder one is 2029, when SPRIND intends to pick which demonstrators to back and expects the field to shrink for budget reasons even among companies meeting their milestones. If the equity-first design holds, the companies that reach Phase 2 are likely to be the ones that can keep raising private capital alongside the state: the call says public funds "shall leverage private capital," and its final milestone aims at "the prerequisites for predominantly private financing of the following development phases." Whether the €2.5 billion arrives depends on budget allocations after 2029, a condition the call already writes into its own terms.