Fusion Was Always "Twenty Years Away." One Company Is Betting the Wait Is Over -- and Taking It Public.

Issued on behalf of General Fusion Inc.

As AI and electrification send power demand soaring, the race to commercialize fusion has collided with the public markets — and the company TIME just ranked the World's Top GreenTech company is heading for the Nasdaq.

NEW YORK, June 17, 2026 /CNW/ -- USA News Group News Commentary — For half a century, commercial fusion energy has carried a punchline: it is always "twenty years away." The physics is the closest thing humanity has to a perfect energy source — the reaction that powers the sun, fueled by hydrogen, producing no carbon emissions and no long-lived radioactive waste — but turning it into electricity on the grid has defeated generations of scientists and cost billions of dollars. What is changing now is not just the science. It is the timing, the money, and the markets. Electricity demand is surging, capital is flooding toward next-generation energy, and for the first time investors are being offered a way to own a fusion pure-play on a public exchange.

At the center of that shift is General Fusion Inc., a Vancouver-based company that has spent more than two decades chasing practical fusion — and which, on June 9, 2026, was ranked number one on TIME's list of the World's Top GreenTech Companies of 2026. The recognition landed at a pivotal moment: General Fusion is advancing toward becoming the first publicly traded pure-play fusion company through a proposed business combination with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ:SVAC), a transaction expected to list the combined company on the Nasdaq under the ticker "GFUZ."

Key Takeaways

•  General Fusion was ranked the world's #1 GreenTech company of 2026 by TIME (in partnership with Statista), topping a list of 250 companies with a score of 96.68 — recognition for its innovation in fusion-energy.
•  The company is planning to go public via a proposed business combination with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ:SVAC), with the combined company expected to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker "GFUZ" — positioning it, by the company's account, as the first publicly traded pure-play fusion company.
•  The deal implies an approximately US$1 billion pro-forma equity value, including a roughly US$108 million committed and oversubscribed PIPE plus up to US$230 million of SVAC trust capital (assuming no redemptions), and is targeted to close in mid-2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.
•  General Fusion's Magnetized Target Fusion ("MTF") approach is designed to avoid the superconducting magnets and high-powered lasers other approaches rely on — and its world-first Lawson Machine 26 ("LM26") demonstration machine has been operating since early 2025.
•  The move arrives as a wave of next-generation energy names — including NuScale Power, Oklo, NANO Nuclear Energy, and Centrus Energy — draw surging investor attention amid AI-driven electricity demand.

Why Fusion's Moment May Finally Be Arriving

The backdrop to all of this is a once-in-a-generation surge in electricity demand. The International Energy Agency has projected global electricity demand could grow on the order of 40% to 50% by 2035, driven by artificial-intelligence data centers, broad electrification, and industrial growth. That is not a gentle increase; it is a structural step-change that is forcing utilities, governments, and technology giants to hunt for new sources of firm, clean, baseload power — the kind that runs day and night regardless of weather.

Fusion is the ultimate prize in that search. Unlike conventional nuclear fission, it does not rely on splitting heavy atoms and does not produce the same long-lived radioactive waste; unlike wind and solar, it is not intermittent. The catch has always been that achieving and sustaining the conditions for fusion — and doing it at a cost that makes economic sense — is extraordinarily hard. That difficulty is exactly why a company that can credibly claim progress, and pair it with capital, stands out. The collision of soaring demand and abundant capital has pulled next-generation energy toward the public markets and opened the door even to pre-revenue developers.

What Sets General Fusion's Approach Apart

Most of the fusion approaches that make headlines fall into two camps: massive tokamaks that use powerful superconducting magnets to confine superheated plasma, or laser-driven systems that implode tiny fuel pellets. Both are scientifically remarkable and both are extraordinarily expensive and complex. General Fusion is pursuing a different path called Magnetized Target Fusion, or MTF, which is designed to achieve fusion without relying on either banks of high-powered lasers or large superconducting magnets — instead using mechanical compression of magnetized plasma in a way the company argues can be built with more conventional, durable materials and at lower cost.

The company's central proof point is hardware, not just theory. In early 2025, General Fusion announced that it had designed, built, and begun operating its world-first MTF demonstration machine —LM26 — in under two years. The LM26 program is intended to pursue a series of key technical milestones on the road toward demonstrating the physics required for a commercially relevant fusion system. The company describes its broader objective as commercializing fusion on a practical timeline, with commercial operations referenced in public reporting around the mid-2030s. None of that guarantees success — fusion remains one of the hardest engineering challenges in the world — but visible, operating hardware is precisely the kind of evidence that separates a credible developer from a slide deck.

The Public-Markets Path: A US$1 Billion Bet

What makes this a market story and not just a science story is the deal. In January 2026, General Fusion entered into a definitive business combination agreement with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ:SVAC), a special-purpose acquisition company focused on power infrastructure and decarbonization. The transaction implies an approximately US$1 billion pro-forma equity value, inclusive of roughly US$108 million from a committed and oversubscribed PIPE financing and up to US$230 million of Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III's trust capital, assuming no redemptions. Spring Valley set a record date of June 12, 2026, and a meeting date of July 6, 2026, for its extraordinary general meeting of shareholders. If the Spring Valley and General Fusion securityholders vote to approve the proposed business combination, the transaction is expected to close shortly thereafter, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. 

There is a notable pedigree on the sponsor side. The Spring Valley team has, by its own account, raised roughly US$920 million across four IPOs over five years and played roles in creating numerous publicly traded companies — and one of the Spring Valley vehicles previously completed the business combination that took small-modular-reactor developer NuScale Power Corporation public. That history places the General Fusion transaction in a recognizable clean-energy SPAC lineage. Investors should weigh that pedigree against the inherent risks of any pre-revenue, pre-commercialization business going public through a SPAC — a structure where outcomes depend on closing conditions, redemptions, financing, and a long road of technical execution still ahead.

The Next-Generation Energy Names Investors Are Watching

General Fusion would be a genuine rarity as a publicly traded pure-play fusion company — there are almost no direct listed comparisons, which is part of the appeal and part of the risk. In practice, the market tends to group fusion with the broader advanced-nuclear and next-generation energy trade, where a handful of public names serve as liquid proxies for investor enthusiasm. The following peer comparisons are provided for illustrative and contextual purposes only; these companies pursue different technologies, are at different stages, and several are far larger and more established than a pre-revenue fusion developer. Investors should not assume that General Fusion will achieve comparable results, valuations, or outcomes.

NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE:SMR) is the most directly relevant reference point — and not only because it is one of the best-known public proxies for next-generation nuclear. NuScale was itself taken public through an earlier Spring Valley business combination, the same sponsor family now behind the General Fusion transaction. As the small-modular-reactor developer with a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission-approved design, NuScale reported roughly US$1 billion in liquidity in early 2026 and continued progress on large U.S. deployment programs, illustrating both the opportunity and the patience required in advanced nuclear.

Oklo Inc. (NYSE:OKLO) has become one of the most visible publicly traded advanced-nuclear names, pursuing compact fast-reactor designs and working through the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process with ambitions to bring a commercial unit online later this decade. Backed by prominent technology investors, Oklo has been a focal point of the new-nuclear conversation and a barometer for how aggressively the market is willing to value pre-revenue energy developers with long commercialization timelines.

NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:NNE) rounds out the advanced-reactor cohort as a closely watched microreactor and advanced-fission developer. As an earlier-stage, smaller-capitalization name riding the same nuclear-renaissance tailwinds, NANO Nuclear illustrates the breadth of investor appetite across the advanced-energy spectrum — from established designs down to emerging developers — and the volatility that tends to come with it.

Centrus Energy Corp. (NYSE:LEU) approaches the theme from the fuel-supply side, producing and seeking to expand domestic enrichment capacity — including the high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) that many advanced reactors will require. As a "picks-and-shovels" play on the nuclear build-out, Centrus underscores that the next-generation energy opportunity spans not just reactor and fusion developers but the entire supply chain feeding them. These companies are referenced to illustrate the sector and do not imply any partnership, endorsement, affiliation, or comparable financial performance.

What to Watch From Here

For investors tracking the story, the near-term markers are clear. The defining events are the closing of the proposed business combination, targeted for mid-2026 and subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, the effectiveness of the registration statement, and the level of SVAC shareholder redemptions — all of which affect how much capital ultimately reaches the combined company. Beyond the deal, the technical milestones of the LM26 program are the substance behind the story; progress there is what would validate the company's claim that practical fusion is closer than the decades-old punchline suggests.

It is essential to keep the risks in full view. General Fusion is a pre-revenue, pre-commercialization company pursuing one of the hardest goals in science, on a timeline that stretches years into the future. A SPAC combination carries its own set of uncertainties, from closing conditions to financing to post-listing volatility. But the convergence is undeniably striking: a company with two decades of work and operating hardware, a top global greentech ranking, a roughly US$1 billion public-markets transaction, and a wave of capital chasing the clean, firm power that an AI-hungry world increasingly demands. Whether or not fusion finally beats its thirty-year reputation, General Fusion has put itself — and soon, public investors — at the center of the attempt.

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SOURCES:

[1] General Fusion Inc. — "General Fusion Named World's Top GreenTech Company of 2026 by TIME" (GlobeNewswire, June 9, 2026; TIME #1 ranking, CEO Greg Twinney quote, LM26, SVAC combination):

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/06/09/3309349/0/en/General-Fusion-Named-World-s-Top-GreenTech-Company-of-2026-by-TIME.html

[2] General Fusion Inc. / Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III — "General Fusion to Become First Publicly Traded Pure-Play Fusion Company…" (GlobeNewswire, Jan 22, 2026; ~US$1B equity value, US$105M PIPE, US$230M trust, mid-2026 close, GFUZ ticker):

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/01/22/3223682/0/en/General-Fusion-to-Become-First-Publicly-Traded-Pure-Play-Fusion-Company-Through-Business-Combination-with-Spring-Valley-Acquisition-Corp-III.html

[3] TIME — "World's Top GreenTech Companies of 2026" (June 9, 2026; General Fusion ranked no. 1, MTF description):

https://time.com/article/2026/06/09/world-top-greentech-companies-2026/

[4] Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III — SEC Form 425 / business-combination disclosures (NewCo amalgamation, redomicile to British Columbia, Nasdaq listing, LM26 funding):

https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0002074850&type=425

[5] PR Newswire / Equity Insider — "The $1 Billion Bet to Take Fusion Public" (June 3, 2026; IEA electricity-demand projection; peer names SMR, OKLO, LEU, NNE):

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-1-billion-bet-to-take-fusion-public-302790359.html

Disclaimer:

This article is a paid digital media distribution and is for informational purposes only. It is not financial, investment, or trading advice, and is neither an offer nor a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions. We hold no investment licenses and are thus neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice, nor are we licensed under U.S. or Canadian securities laws. The content in this report or email is not provided to any individual with a view toward their individual circumstances. Nothing in this publication should be considered as personalized financial advice, and no communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. While all information is believed to be reliable, it is not guaranteed by us to be accurate. Individuals should assume that all information contained in our newsletter is not trustworthy unless verified by their own independent research. Also, because events and circumstances frequently do not occur as expected, there will likely be differences between any predictions and actual results. Always consult a licensed investment professional before making any investment decision. Be extremely careful, investing in securities carries a high degree of risk; you may likely lose some or all of the investment.

USA News Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market IQ Media Group, Inc. ("MIQ"). This article is being distributed by USA News Group on behalf of MIQ. MIQ, in turn, has been paid a fee for advertising and digital media by Creative Direct Marketing Group ("CDMG"). CDMG has been retained by General Fusion, pursuant to a services agreement, to provide various marketing and advertising services for an aggregate fee. This article was prepared and published pursuant to that services agreement. This compensation constitutes a conflict of interest as to our ability to remain objective in our communication regarding the profiled company. Because of this conflict, individuals are strongly encouraged to not use this article or email as the basis for any investment decision. MIQ does not own shares of General Fusion Inc. or Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ: "SVAC") but reserves the right to buy and sell shares of the company at any time. We also expect further compensation as an ongoing digital media effort to increase visibility for the company. This disclaimer serves as notice that all material disseminated by MIQ has been reviewed and approved on behalf of General Fusion Inc. by CDMG; this is a paid digital media distribution. Eagle Eye is a free investor-signal research tool owned and operated by MIQ; references to it in this article are promotion of an MIQ product, not independent endorsement, and Eagle Eye does not provide investment advice.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this document are not historical facts but are forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this document are forward-looking statements. Any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are also forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "estimate," "plan," "project," "forecast," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "seek," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "may," "target," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," "preliminary," or similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, SVAC, General Fusion Inc.'s ("General Fusion"), or their respective management teams' expectations concerning General Fusion's plan to go public through a business combination with SVAC (the transactions contemplated by the business combination, collectively, the "Proposed Business Combination") and expected benefits or timing thereof; the outlook for General Fusion's business, including its ability to commercialize MTF or any other fusion technology on its expected timeline or at all; statements regarding the current and expected results of General Fusion's LM26 program; the ability to execute General Fusion's strategies, including on any expected timeline or anticipated cost basis; projected and estimated financial performance; anticipated industry trends; future capital expenditures; government regulation of fusion energy; and environmental risks; as well as any information concerning possible or assumed future results of operations of General Fusion. The forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations of the respective management teams of SVAC and General Fusion, as applicable, and are inherently subject to uncertainties and changes in circumstance and their potential effects. There can be no assurance that future developments will be those that have been anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, (i) the risk that the Proposed Business Combination may not be completed in a timely manner or at all, which may adversely affect the price of SVAC's securities; (ii) the failure to satisfy the conditions to the consummation of the Proposed Business Combination, including the adoption of the business combination agreement, dated January 21, 2026, among General Fusion, SVAC, and the other party thereto (the "Business Combination Agreement") by the shareholders of SVAC and the receipt of regulatory approvals; (iii) market risks; (iv) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the Business Combination Agreement; (v) the effect of the announcement or pendency of the Proposed Business Combination on General Fusion's business relationships, performance, and business generally; (vi) risks that the Proposed Business Combination disrupts current plans of General Fusion and potential difficulties in its employee retention as a result of the Proposed Business Combination; (vii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against General Fusion or SVAC related to the Business Combination Agreement or the Proposed Business Combination; (viii) failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the Proposed Business Combination; (ix) the inability to maintain the listing of SVAC's securities or to meet listing requirements and maintain the listing of the combined company's securities on Nasdaq; (x) the risk that the Proposed Business Combination may not be completed by SVAC's business combination deadline and the potential failure to obtain an extension of the business combination deadline if sought by SVAC; (xi) the risk that the price of the combined company's securities may be volatile due to a variety of factors, including changes in laws, regulations, technologies, natural disasters, national security tensions, and macro-economic and social environments affecting its business; (xii) laws and regulations governing General Fusion's research and development activities, and changes in such laws and regulations; (xiii) any failure to commercialize MTF on the expected timeline or at all, including any failure to achieve the objectives of the LM26 program; (xiv) environmental regulations and legislation; (xv) the effects of climate change, extreme weather events, water scarcity, and seismic events, and the effectiveness of strategies to deal with these issues; (xvi) fluctuations in currency markets; (xvii) General Fusion's ability to complete and successfully integrate any future acquisitions; (xviii) increased competition in the fusion industry; (xix) limited supply of materials and supply chain disruptions; and (xx) the risk that the proposed private placement of convertible preferred shares and warrants by General Fusion (the "PIPE Financing") may not be completed, or that other capital needed by the combined company may not be raised on favorable terms, or at all, including as a result of the restrictions agreed to in connection with the PIPE Financing. The foregoing list is not exhaustive, and there may be additional risks that neither SVAC nor General Fusion presently know or that SVAC and General Fusion currently believe are immaterial. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors, any other factors discussed in this document and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of SVAC's final prospectus for its initial public offering, which was filed with the SEC on September 4, 2025 (the "Final Prospectus"); the risks described in the joint registration statement on Form F-4 filed by General Fusion and SVAC, as amended (the "Registration Statement"), or to be described in any amendment or supplement thereto; the risks described in the definitive proxy statement/prospectus filed with the SEC on June 12, 2026,or to be described in any amendment or supplement thereto; and those discussed and identified in filings made with the SEC by SVAC from time to time. General Fusion and SVAC caution you against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect current beliefs and are based on information currently available as of the date a forward-looking statement is made. Forward-looking statements set forth in this document speak only as of the date of this document. Neither General Fusion nor SVAC undertakes any obligation to revise forward-looking statements to reflect future events, changes in circumstances, or changes in beliefs. In the event that any forward-looking statement is updated, no inference should be made that General Fusion or SVAC will make additional updates with respect to that statement, related matters, or any other forward-looking statements. Any corrections or revisions and other important assumptions and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements, including discussions of significant risk factors, may appear, up to the consummation of the Proposed Business Combination, in SVAC's public filings with the SEC, which are or will be (as applicable) accessible at www.sec.gov, and which you are advised to review carefully.

Important Information for Investors and Shareholders

In connection with the Proposed Business Combination, General Fusion and SVAC filed with the SEC the Registration Statement, which includes a preliminary prospectus with respect to SVAC's securities to be issued in connection with the Proposed Business Combination and a preliminary proxy statement in connection with SVAC's solicitation of proxies for the vote by SVAC's shareholders with respect to the Proposed Business Combination and other matters described in the Registration Statement. On June 12, 2026, the SEC declared the Registration Statement effective and SVAC  filed the definitive Proxy Statement (the "Proxy Statement") with the SEC. On June 15, 2026, SVAC  commenced mailing copies of the Proxy Statement to SVAC's shareholders as of the record date of June 12, 2026. This document does not contain all the information that should be considered concerning the Proposed Business Combination and is not a substitute for the Registration Statement, Proxy Statement or for any other document that SVAC has filed or may file with the SEC. Before making any investment or voting decision, investors and security holders of SVAC and General Fusion are urged to read the Registration Statement and the Proxy Statement, and any amendments or supplements thereto, as well as all other relevant materials filed or that will be filed with the SEC in connection with the Proposed Business Combination as they become available because they will contain important information about General Fusion, SVAC and the Proposed Business Combination. Investors and security holders are able to obtain free copies of the Registration Statement, the Proxy Statement and all other relevant documents filed or that will be filed with the SEC by SVAC through the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. In addition, the documents filed by SVAC may be obtained free of charge from SVAC's website at https://sv-ac.com or by directing a request to Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III, Attn: Corporate Secretary, 2100 McKinney Avenue, Suite 1675, Dallas, Texas 75201. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, the websites referenced in this document is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document.

Participants in the Solicitation

General Fusion, SVAC and their respective directors, executive officers and other members of management and employees may, under the rules of the SEC, be deemed to be participants in the solicitations of proxies from SVAC's shareholders in connection with the Proposed Business Combination. For more information about the names, affiliations and interests of SVAC's directors and executive officers, please refer to the Final Prospectus and the Registration Statement, Proxy Statement and other relevant materials filed or to be filed with the SEC in connection with the Proposed Business Combination when they become available. Additional information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, which may, in some cases, be different than those of SVAC's shareholders generally, is included in the Registration Statement and the Proxy Statement. Shareholders, potential investors and other interested persons should read the Registration Statement and the Proxy Statement carefully before making any voting or investment decisions. You may obtain free copies of these documents from the sources indicated above.

No Offer or Solicitation

This document shall not constitute a "solicitation" as defined in Section 14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. This document shall not constitute an offer to sell or exchange, the solicitation of an offer to buy or a recommendation to purchase, any securities, or a solicitation of any vote, consent or approval, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale may be unlawful under the laws of such jurisdiction. No offering of securities in the Proposed Business Combination shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or an exemption therefrom.

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