Fusion Startups Trade Equity for Government Awards
Source: TechCrunch
The Department of Energy's recent funding programs increasingly require startups to surrender equity stakes as a condition for awards, forcing founders to choose between dilution and walking away from public capital. The government is shifting from pure grants to instruments that give the state upside participation—a venture capital structure without venture's hands-on involvement. For fusion companies with 10-15 year timelines before commercialization, the trade-off is stark: accepting equity dilution now means surrendering control when venture rounds are already punitive, while rejecting government money means betting entirely on private capital's patience for physics-stage startups.