LLNL and Inertia strike landmark deal to industrialise inertial fusion target manufacturing

The hohlraum at the heart of inertial fusion: a precision-engineered capsule that LLNL has refined over six decades of research and that Inertia now aims to manufacture at commercial scale

(Image courtesy of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and San Francisco Bay Area startup Inertia Enterprises have moved to commercialise the only fusion approach ever to achieve ignition. Their new partnership, announced in April 2026, is built around three formal R&D contracts and a patent licensing agreement covering fusion laser technology and inertial fusion target manufacturing. Both the scope and the structure are unique inside the DOE national laboratory system.

Inertia was founded in 2024 by Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson alongside Annie Kritcher, the LLNL physicist who led the physics design behind the 2022 ignition shot and continues her research at the laboratory, and Mike Dunne, who previously directed LLNL’s industry-validated fusion power plant design programme. The company raised a $450 million Series A in February 2026, led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from Alphabet’s GV.

The deal consists of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), the DOE’s standard framework for public-private R&D collaboration, plus two Strategic Partnership Projects (SPPs), contract mechanisms for focused technical workstreams. The CRADA covers laser development. One SPP advances fusion target design; the other addresses target-fabrication technologies. Alongside these, Inertia has secured a licensing agreement for a portfolio of nearly 200 LLNL patents, including exclusive rights to some foundational inertial fusion inventions.

Inertial fusion target manufacturing at commercial scale

LLNL manages its side of the collaboration through LIFT, the Livermore Institute for Fusion Technology, a newly established body built to broker deals with the private fusion industry. LLNL’s Innovation and Partnerships Office facilitated the CRADA.

LIFT Director Tammy Ma said the partnership applies the hard-won lessons from achieving fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility toward making fusion energy a reality. The agreements create a legal framework for parallel development of laser systems and inertial fusion target manufacturing.

For Inertia, the target manufacturing workstream is particularly consequential. Commercial inertial fusion power plants will demand fuel target production volumes far beyond anything current research facilities support. Formalising the collaboration through DOE-approved instruments gives both parties structured access to LLNL’s facilities, expertise, and scientific personnel.

A first in DOE laboratory history

LLNL Director Kim Budil positioned the deal as a way to move 60 years of public investment out of the laboratory and into industry. Budil said LLNL’s expertise in inertial fusion science, laser technology, physics design, and target fabrication should directly inform industrial-scale development.

DOE Office of Fusion Director Jean Paul Allain framed the broader significance. Fusion is no longer advancing in isolation, he said. National laboratories, private capital, and the wider innovation ecosystem are now aligned to move fusion from breakthrough to deployment.

Lawson said the private sector’s role is to take the foundation built at LLNL and build at scale. This agreement, he said, places LLNL’s scientific weight directly behind that effort.

Fusion supply chain implications for target manufacturing

Looking ahead, LIFT plans to use the Inertia collaboration as a template. The institute will develop further mechanisms for industry engagement and strengthen the infrastructure, supply chain, and talent pipelines that commercial fusion will demand. That signals a clear opening for specialist vendors in optics, precision components, and high-throughput inertial fusion target manufacturing to engage with the emerging commercial fusion ecosystem through LIFT-brokered channels.

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