Fusion energy has spent decades proving it can work. Chris Mowry, an energy industry veteran with over 30 years of experience, it’s focused on something more difficult: proving it can sell. As CEO of Type One Energy, a hybrid startup backed by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Mowry is driving the industry forward beyond the scientific and economic milestones of real-world energy. His assessment is straightforward: Can fusion meet the same standards that utilities can apply to any energy source: reliability, cost and availability.
“The real change in the trade is signed when end customers start paying companies for their own fusion technology, rather than a conditional commitment to buy power if it is produced in the future,” he told the Observer.
That change is becoming more urgent. Fusion has attracted more than $10 billion in funding by 2025, fueled in part by rising demand for electricity in AI data centers. But many resource agreements across the sector still lack a firm financial commitment.
Mowry’s vision comes from decades within a power system that includes disruption. He started at Philadelphia Electric and the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, then spent 10 years at GE Energy in senior roles. He later led B&W Nuclear Energy, launched a small modular reactor business, and served as CEO of General Fusion. In all those roles, his focus has remained the same: turning complex energy technologies into viable businesses. That working order now forms the First Type.
Founded in 2019 by fusion scientists from the University of Wisconsin, including chief scientist John Canik, the company has raised more than $160 million. Mowry joined 2023 after working with Breakthrough Energy Ventures to improve its commercial strategy.
While fusion is still a race between competing designs, Type One is betting on a stellarator, a reactor designed for stable, continuous operation that’s closer to how utilities operate with baseload power today. Mowry says understanding the existing needs of the grid is important.
“The stellarator is the only fusion technology so far that has been shown to work in a stable and continuous manner,” he said.
The company’s strategy is already working in partnership with Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the largest public energy provider in the US The two are developing what could be the first commercial solar plant at TVA’s Bull Run site, a retired coal plant.
For Mowry, partnerships are as important as technology. TVA is not just the customer of the future; assists in licensing, development and distribution. That shows Type One’s broad approach to integrating into the existing energy system rather than reinventing it.
Instead of building everything in-house, the company relies on established industrial partners for manufacturing and plant systems, while focusing on its core assembly technology. The goal is to reduce costs and the risk of execution.
“Our business plan is very efficient, by design,” Mowry said.
Type One targets initial operation in the early 2030s, with follow-on plants designed to scale more quickly and cheaply. Mowry believes the merger could eventually follow a production model instead of the slow, planned construction typical of large energy projects.
Type One is not alone in pursuing that idea. Commonwealth Fusion Systems, backed by investors including Google, is developing a tokamak design with plans for deployment in the early 2030s. Helion Energy, backed by Sam Altman, is taking a different approach with a solar power system and aims to deliver 50 megawatts to Microsoft by 2028.
Each approach represents a different technological and economic bet, and the outcome remains uncertain. But Mowry says the industry is entering a new phase. Once a company secures a dedicated customer—as Type One has TVA—the conversation begins to change. The main question is no longer physics, but execution.
“There’s not enough seed money around the table to fund even a small number of technology development projects over $10 billion,” Mowry said. “Investors are increasingly asking the questions they ask of companies that are developing. This is focused on the business and the application of the work more than the physical science.”
That change is driven in part by demand. Fusion is increasingly positioned as a sustainable, carbon-free energy source for energy-intensive users such as data centers. But prominence alone will not determine the outcome. Successful companies will be those that can build, finance and operate power systems that meet utility expectations for cost and reliability.
Mowry’s bet is that fusion could end up being more like manufacturing than megaproject infrastructure, enabled by standardized designs and a more streamlined regulatory framework than traditional nuclear. The Type One model reflects that vision: rely on partners with expertise in hybrid systems, integrate with existing grid infrastructure, and focus internal efforts on core technologies.
