Proxima signs Fujikura and Kyoto Fusioneering memoranda on HTS tape and fusion equipment

Proxima Fusion signed memoranda with Fujikura and Kyoto Fusioneering in Tokyo on 28 October 2026, during German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to Japan. The Fujikura agreement covers HTS tape manufacturing and a joint study of whether an industrial-scale tape site in Lower Saxony is technically and commercially feasible. The Kyoto Fusioneering agreement expands existing work on next-generation gyrotrons, the high-power microwave sources that heat plasma, and on fuel-cycle technology for handling tritium.

Kyoto Fusioneering said the work would also feed into Germany's national Fusion Hubs initiative, run by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space. Xenospectrum reported that the agreements do not guarantee product orders or deliveries, or the operation of a power plant.

The proposed Lower Saxony plant would be the first of its kind in Germany and Europe. It is meant to supply Proxima's Alpha demonstrator, its planned Stellaris power plant and, ultimately, stellarator production at scale. World Nuclear News reported that Stellaris is planned for the site of the former Gundremmingen nuclear power plant in Bavaria. Reuters reported that RWE signed an agreement to partner on a first stellarator plant there. The same HTS capacity would serve high-performance electricity grids, medical imaging and treatment, advanced propulsion and other high-field magnet technologies.

Under current plans, Proxima will require about 20,000 kilometres of HTS tape for Alpha and a further 40,000 kilometres for Stellaris. Long-term purchase volumes will be critical to scaling production, retaining manufacturing expertise and reducing cost per metre, the company said.

The Lower Saxony agreement

The tape plan predates the Tokyo trip. On 9 September 2026 Proxima signed a memorandum with Lower Saxony covering site assessment, a milestone-based support and funding structure, permitting and partnerships with companies, municipalities and research institutions.

Around €140 million is planned for the first two project phases, which run until the end of 2029. Proxima aims to finance the total investment equally through private capital and public funding. Lower Saxony is providing €21 million toward the proposed public funding contribution.

The €140 million plan is smaller than the €411 million Proxima raised in July. The round valued the company at €2.4 billion, with Google and RWE joining as strategic investors, Reuters reported. XTX Ventures and East X Ventures led the round. RWE contributed €25 million.

The tape supply gap

HTS tape becomes superconducting at relatively high temperatures and carries current with virtually no resistive losses. That makes powerful, compact electromagnets possible, and stellarators rely on those magnets to confine plasma. Proxima was spun out of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and is developing a stellarator, which uses a twisted magnetic field to hold plasma steady rather than the pulsed operation of a tokamak.

Most HTS tape is made in Asia. TechCrunch reported that the vast majority comes from China and Japan, and World Nuclear News said industrial-scale production is primarily in Asia. The material emerged a little over a decade ago as one of the breakthroughs behind the current generation of fusion startups, TechCrunch reported.

Proxima plans to complete Alpha in the early 2030s and the commercial Stellaris facility later in the same decade.

What happens next

No final investment decision on the tape factory has been announced, and no annual production capacity has been confirmed. The Lower Saxony memorandum sets out a milestone-based support and funding structure rather than a schedule of payments.

Proxima said it is in discussions with several international technology partners about bringing HTS manufacturing expertise to Lower Saxony. Fujikura is now one of them. Proxima said the two companies will first evaluate the technical requirements for manufacturing and its commercial and economic feasibility.