Canada-based General Fusion has entered into a definitive business combination agreement with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp III (SVAC). Upon closing, the proposed business combination is expected to result in General Fusion listing on the Nasdaq and trading under the ticker symbol GFUZ. The transaction is projected to be completed in mid-2026.
General Fusion said it intends to use proceeds from the transaction to fully fund its Lawson Machine 26 (LM26) magnetised target fusion (MTF) demonstration machine, which is operating at the company’s headquarters near Vancouver, British Columbia. The goal of the LM26 programme is to demonstrate and de-risk MTF technology “in a commercially relevant way,” the company said.
General Fusion was founded in 2002 by the Canadian plasma physicist Michel Laberge and has attracted more than $400m of funding from both private investors and the Canadian government. MTF technology is based on the concept of an enclosed, liquid-metal vortex. Plasma is injected into the centre of the vortex before numerous pistons hammer on the outside of the enclosure, compressing the plasma and sparking a fusion reaction, with the resulting heat being absorbed by the liquid metal.
LM26, launched in 2023, has achieved a number of milestones. The device was assembled in December 2024, achieved its first plasma in February 2025, and its first plasma compression in April 2025. The machine is designed to demonstrate MTF at 50% commercial scale and achieve milestones of 10m degrees Celsius (1 keV), 100m degrees Celsius (10 keV), and ultimately, scientific breakeven equivalent (100% Lawson). In August 2025, General Fusion closed $22m in new financing to support the LM26 programme.
The transaction with Spring Valley implies approximately $1bn pro-forma equity value including approximately $105m from a committed and oversubscribed PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) with leading institutional investors and $230m of SVAC’s trust capital (assuming no redemptions).
SVAC is part of a group of investment vehicles that was formed for purposes of acquisitions and mergers with energy and decarbonisation companies. During the last three decades, the SVAC team has closed more than 50 energy and decarbonisation transactions and has contributed to the creation of 17 publicly traded companies. It recently completed a business combination with NuScale Power and announced a pending merger with Eagle Energy Metals.
