Inertia

How do you turn the only proven fusion physics into scalable, affordable fusion energy? It’s a question at the heart of our approach to fusion energy––and one that we’re actively working with the semiconductor industry to answer. In a new Photonics Spectra article, Andreas Thoss and Paul Crump show a clear roadmap to achieve the required cost and reliability to make laser-based fusion a commercial reality. https://lnkd.in/eBgJijtN

Inertia’s investing in more than just our fusion future; we’re also investing in the people who will build it. Meet our 2026 inaugural class of interning star builders! We welcomed some of the brightest stars from top institutions, including Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, UCLA, University of California, Davis, UC San Diego, University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Georgia Institute of Technology, to spend their summer at our newly opened House of Fusion––to learn, innovate, and make commercial fusion real. Over the past several months, they’ve pitched in on everything from target design and fabrication to power plant modeling, simulation, and design. We’ve loved having them on our team and can’t wait to see what’s ahead 🌟 ⚡ Areeba Arbab — Stanford University ⚡ Muhammad Zayaan Azfar — Georgia Institute of Technology ⚡ Pierre Boca — Stanford University ⚡ Thibault C. — University of California, Berkeley ⚡ Jasmine Dinari — University of California, Los Angeles ⚡ David Johnson — Cornell University ⚡ Louis Pointreau — University of California, Berkeley ⚡ Alice Russ — University of California, Davis ⚡ James Strickland — Stanford University ⚡ Tobey Theiding — University of Pennsylvania ⚡ Taylor Wagner — Massachusetts Institute of Technology ⚡ Oren Yang — University of California, San Diego

It’s time for another installment of #𝟯𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵… Our series spotlighting the people building #StarPowerForLife at Inertia. Meet Pascal Planchenault, Senior Engineer of Precision Launch Systems.  In the spring of this year, Pascal reached the pinnacle of a career in weapons systems design for Sig Sauer at just 34 years old. 𝗦𝗼 𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗱: 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁? Inertia came to him at the right moment. He wasn't tracking fusion, but our commercial vision and foundation of proven physics changed that. "𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 2022 𝘕𝘐𝘍 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥; 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴." 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗵𝗲'𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱. Pascal is the lead engineer on the injector (the mechanism that launches fuel targets into the fusion chamber). He calls it, “𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘨𝘶𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺.” "𝘐 𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 3,000-𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘌𝘖, 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘴—𝘤𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴, 𝘧𝘢𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘛𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘯𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦.” 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗵𝗶𝗺 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴. "𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺.” If you're interested in becoming a star-builder like Pascal, join us: inertia.com/jobs

Ever wonder what it takes to build a successful commercial fusion power plant from proven physics? Katie Brigham walks Heatmap News through the ten goals Inertia needs to achieve in the first phase of our development of a commercial fusion energy power plant. Read more about our plans to build #StarPowerForLife. https://lnkd.in/gGwhKvaF

Thanks to Katie Fehrenbacher and the Axios crew for coming to the grand opening of our House of Fusion! We’re still growing our team and building out our new 50,000-square-foot––even as we begin hitting significant milestones on the road to “one of the most pragmatic plans to deliver electricity from commercial fusion”. Read more about what it takes to make #StarPowerForLife: https://lnkd.in/g4pvEtAa And become one of our stars: https://inertia.com/jobs/

Welcome to Inertia’s Phase I Top Ten: The top ten things we need to do right now to make #StarPowerForLife 🌟 We’re already building on proven physics––using the only technology capable of achieving ignition: laser-based indirect-drive fusion.  And we're hiring the team, bringing in supply chain and technical wizards from Apple, Waymo, SIG SAUER, and ASML. Now we're presenting our Phase I milestones. These are the goals we plan to hit on our way to building the first commercial fusion reactor based on proven physics. Read all about them in this update from our founders Mike Dunne, Andrea (Annie) Kritcher, and Jeff Lawson: https://lnkd.in/eDbDdfaj

Last week, we opened the doors to our House of Fusion, and ABC News was on hand to get the story on #StarPowerForLife. Click the link to see our founders Mike Dunne, Andrea (Annie) Kritcher, and Jeff Lawson explain our vision for bringing fusion power from Livermore to the world: https://lnkd.in/gP5y4fBH

The Fusion Industry Association just announced a new $4.4 billion investment milestone for the companies racing to bring fusion energy to the world––and we’re proud to be one of them. At Inertia, we see a clear path to building the world's first commercial fusion power plant: one rooted in manufacturing milestones, not physics experiments. And our collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory means we’re building on the only demonstrated technology to reach scientific net energy gain. Thanks to FIA CEO Andrew Holland and his team for their hard work putting together this important overview of the industry’s progress. Click the link here to get the full report: https://lnkd.in/d8tQSQGf

Welcome to the House of Fusion, our new 50,000-square-foot headquarters in Livermore, California! Here, we’re building the world’s first fusion fuel target factory, the world’s most powerful laser, and designing a grid-scale fusion power plant to deliver #StarPowerForLife. It’s not just technology that we’re building here, it’s a community committed to our vision and invested in our success. Thank you to U.S. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, CA Senator Jerry McNerney, City of Livermore Mayor John Marchand and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Principal Associate Director Vincent Tang for joining us to celebrate our progress at this week’s opening of Inertia HQ. We’re honored to mark this milestone together with our ever-expanding universe of partners, collaborators, investors, teammates (and brilliant summer interns!), neighbors and friends.  We’ve set an incredible pace since Day 1 and we aren’t stopping - we’ve got a lot to do…. so let’s go do it!!! 🤩 https://lnkd.in/gigp7dGi

Five microns…That was the size of the difference between success and failure in the 2022 demonstration that proved fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Listen as Molly Wood uncovers these revelations and more in her podcast with Andrea (Annie) Kritcher, our co-founder who helped keep the quest for laser fusion ignition alive at NIF. Annie explains the lessons she’s learned from investing decades in the pursuit of fusion ignition, gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it really took to design laser-based fusion’s historic success, and sheds light on her journey from scientist to startup entrepreneur. Spoiler alert… it may make you long for breakfast, benevolent aliens, and #StarPowerForLife 🌟 Listen to the interview here https://lnkd.in/g-2bf478