Proxima Fusion is committing €140 million (~$163M) to build Europe's first large-scale factory for high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tape, the fusion industry's most contested single input. The Munich-based stellarator developer signed an MoU with the German state of Lower Saxony on September 10, 2026, formally announced the plant on September 25 alongside World Nuclear News coverage, and expects capacity to come online in stages through 2029.
Why HTS Tape Matters
HTS tape lets fusion magnets hit the field strengths required for commercial reactors — the breakthrough that enabled the current wave of tokamak and stellarator startups from Commonwealth Fusion Systems to Tokamak Energy to Proxima itself. The problem: virtually all commercial HTS tape today is made in China and Japan. As Europe's fusion pipeline moves from R&D to construction, that single-source risk has become the strategic bottleneck.
The Numbers
Proxima's Alpha demonstrator needs 20,000 kilometres of HTS tape; the follow-on Stellaris commercial plant will need another 40,000 kilometres. To feed those magnets, Proxima is targeting a plant that would let Europe manufacture at scale by the end of the decade, blending public and private capital. Lower Saxony is contributing €21 million — roughly 30% of the public share — with the rest coming from federal, EU and equity backers.
Fusion Supply Chain Sovereignty
The announcement lands the same week Germany's Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt backed a €122M NFQC-1k quantum consortium, part of a broader Berlin push to onshore deep-tech supply chains. Together with Proxima's earlier magnet demonstrator and its peer companies' facilities, the tape plant would give Germany a full-stack fusion industrial base by 2029.
Timeline
Construction and validation are scheduled through end-2029, with a phased ramp that lets Alpha demonstrator magnet manufacturing come first, followed by full commercial output for Stellaris. Proxima has not disclosed the exact site within Lower Saxony but says operations will be closely linked to existing German industrial superconductor R&D.
Reporting based on coverage from TechCrunch, World Nuclear News and the American Nuclear Society.