LIVERMORE, Calif., April 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Inertia Enterprises, the commercial fusion energy company, today announced a landmark strategic partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), establishing one of the largest private sector-led partnerships in the history of the U.S. national lab system.
On the heels of its $450 million funding round, the collaboration with LLNL expands on the robust research and development capabilities and strong capital position Inertia has established and accelerates the company’s path towards commercializing fusion energy. To date, LLNL is home to the only facility in the world to successfully demonstrate fusion energy gain.
Inertia and LLNL have signed two Strategic Partnership Projects (SPPs) and a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), mechanisms that allow private companies to collaborate with national laboratories for research and development. The partnership also includes a licensing agreement for a broad portfolio of nearly 200 patents covering inertial fusion technology developed at LLNL, including exclusive rights to some foundational inventions.
“Decades of public investment in fusion science have created a foundation that only America’s national labs could have built. Inertia exists to take that foundation and do what the private sector does best: build at scale and deliver commercial impact,” said Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-founder of Inertia. “This partnership with LLNL ensures we’re doing that with the full weight of their scientific expertise behind us.”
This expansive partnership is designed to address specific challenges on the path from proven physics to a commercial power plant and marks a monumental step in bridging public and private sector fusion innovation in the United States.
“We are committed to ensuring that the 60 years of public investment, fusion leadership, and scientific breakthroughs achieved here don’t stay in the laboratory. This agreement, along with other public-private partnerships, is how we accelerate that effort,” said Kim Budil, director of LLNL. “This partnership positions LLNL’s world-leading expertise in inertial fusion science, laser technology, physics design, and target fabrication to directly inform the industrial-scale development that commercial fusion demands.”
Supercharging Commercial Fusion R&D with Strategic Collaboration
Inertia’s CRADA agreement with LLNL covers the R&D and prototyping of advanced optical materials and semiconductor laser diodes, the development of new manufacturing techniques for high-cost or long-lead components, and design options and experimental validation for a potential beamline architecture to drive Inertia’s planned high-power laser system.
Through its two SPPs with LLNL, Inertia is scaling the performance and production of the fusion fuel targets that are at the heart of the breakthrough demonstrated at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Under this contract, LLNL staff will apply the same ICF design codes used to achieve ignition to help Inertia design its high-gain fusion target with greater confidence. A large team of LLNL scientists working with Inertia’s team of experts are both developing the target physics design as well as the techniques for rapid target manufacturing capable of meeting the design specifications necessary for grid-scale fusion power plant operation.
Partnering to Advance Scientific Leadership and Energy Security
The combination of the two SPPs and CRADA represents one of the most significant private sector-led agreements with a Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory for a single collaborative program. This partnership aligns with the DOE’s commitment to fusion energy development, including the strategic goals of the Office of Fusion and the foundational science and facilities work advanced by the Fusion Energy Sciences program. Together, these efforts are establishing a new model for translating U.S. scientific leadership into real commercial and strategic advantage.
“Fusion is one of the greatest scientific and technological challenges of our time, and it is one we simply cannot afford to lose. What makes this moment different is that we are no longer pursuing it in isolation,” said Jean Paul Allain, Director of the DOE Office of Fusion. “Through partnerships like this one, we are bringing together the full strength of our National Labs, private industry, and the broader innovation ecosystems to move from breakthrough to deployment.”
“These agreements catalyze progress toward building the world’s first fusion power plant by combining unique expertise and resources across government and industry,” said Mike Dunne, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Inertia. “Our work with LLNL speeds up timelines for the multiple innovations vital for commercial fusion energy, bolstering Inertia’s work with other industry and research partners as we develop the processes and supply chains that future fusion power plants will depend on.”
An Outside Business Agreement (OBA) enabled by the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act allows Dr. Andrea “Annie” Kritcher to continue her national security research activities at LLNL while co-founding Inertia to commercialize the historic breakthroughs and technological innovations in fusion science she’s pioneered over her decades-long research career.
“After more than two decades at LLNL working on inertial fusion and high-energy-density physics, designing the first burning, ignited, and gain >1 fusion plasmas and serving as lead for integrated modeling in the Inertial Confinement Fusion Program, I’ve always asserted that realizing this at scale requires a deep partnership with the lab to fully leverage the capability and experience,” said Dr. Kritcher, co-founder and Chief Scientist of Inertia. “Ignition at LLNL showed this approach to fusion works. At Inertia, we now get to build on that foundation and push it to industrial scale. There’s no better team positioned to take this on than the Inertia team, working closely together with the LLNL teams through these robust partnerships, enabling moving quickly from day one.”
About Inertia Enterprises
Inertia is the commercial fusion energy company. We lead laser-indirect drive fusion, the only fusion approach based on proven physics. To create a world with limitless clean energy, we’re building big. The most powerful laser system ever created for fusion energy. Mass-manufactured targets for affordable fusion fuel. And power plants that can deliver fusion energy at grid-scale. Our team has the business, manufacturing, and physics expertise to make it all possible and create star power for life on Earth.
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