Fusion power startups find new partners in the defense world; plus, Mecka AI nears $500M valuation amid rush for robot training data

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1:13That's Framer.com slash tcstartups rules and restrictions may apply. Fusion power is getting back to its roots as fusion startups keep chasing their ultimate goal, putting electrons on the grid. many are also now embracing or returning to the defense applications that laid the foundation for the industry. The sector emerged decades ago when physicists looked for more constructive uses of the science behind the thermonuclear bombs that proliferated during the Cold War. The national security angle never really went away. a groundbreaking fusion power experiment back in 2022, happened at the National Ignition Facility, which has supported national security applications for more than 25 years.

2:00That shift has accelerated as venture dollars committed to climate tech, the funds that typically have supported fusion startups, have stalled. Fusion startups have captured a large portion of recent climate tech funding, But fusion is an expensive business, and venture capitalists are always happy when their portfolio companies find other sources of money. And that's where the defense industry comes in. The defense industry has explored laser weapons for years, but interest has spiked as drones have reshaped modern warfare. Traditional air defense systems were designed to target human-piloted aircraft, which tend to be larger and fewer in number.

2:43That has led to some comical mismatches between aggressor and defender. For example, about a decade ago, a U.S. ally used a$3 million Patriot missile to shoot down a$200 consumer drone. Effective, but not very efficient. Laser weapons promised to alter the math. Instead of firing a single, expensive, one-use missile per shot, they fire quickly and relatively cheaply using electricity drawn from a generator or a ship's reactor or engine. Fusion startups working on laser-based reactor designs are ideal partners in developing such weapons. Last week, laser-based fusion startup Exomer announced a partnership with and investment from RTX, the conglomerate that includes defense contractor Raytheon.

3:34Under the deal, Exomer gets funding from RTX, while RTX can start exploring how to use Exomer's powerful lasers for its own purposes. Denver-based Exomer currently operates what it says is the largest privately-owned laser system in the world, which it plans to use to develop a power plant. Inside its power plant, lasers will bombard fuel targets, compressing them until the atoms inside fuse and release energy. The startup's current laser system, Phoenix, operates at an order of magnitude lower power than will be required for a power plant, but it is powerful enough to have caught the attention of the defense industry.

4:14XMR is not the only player in the defense space. Pacific Fusion announced a Memorandum of Understanding last month with the National Nuclear Security Administration to work together on high-energy density fusion experiments. The startup recently broke ground on a demonstration facility in New Mexico, not far from the Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. While its primary purpose is to demonstrate that the company's design can generate more power than the facility consumes, it has other uses. The fusion reactions at Pacific Fusion's facility will be far more powerful than those the government currently uses to perform nuclear weapons experiments.

4:54Keith Leshain, co-founder and chief technical officer at Pacific Fusion, told TechCrunch recently, It might sound like a convenient coincidence, but it really isn't one. Defense applications were always on our mind, says Kerry von Munch, co-founder and chief operating officer at Pacific Fusion. Lachine, who developed the company's core technology, previously worked at Sandia National Laboratories, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Fusion power has come a long way since the first weapons scientists dreamt it up decades ago, but its national security applications have not been forgotten.

5:41Their recent reacquaintance is perhaps overdue and promises to give willing fusion startups a helpful boost.

5:52Mecca AI is a startup that collects and analyzes human motion data to train humanoid robots and other robotics. And the company is nearing a new round led by Sequoia Capital at a valuation of about$500 million. That's according to two people with knowledge of the deal. The new financing comes just three months after Mecca announced that it raised$60 million in a round led by Framework ventures that included participation from Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, and Kindred Ventures. Mecca AI was founded back in 2024 by four entrepreneurs who do not have backgrounds in robotics, but they did recognize that there was a dearth of physical world data and realized that capturing real-world interactions was the primary bottleneck holding back general-purpose robots, including humanoids.

6:46Mecca set out to do for robotics what Scale AI, Mercor, Surge, and other human data companies have done for LLMs. The startup pays people to record themselves performing everyday tasks like making coffee or fixing cars using body sensors and smartphones. As of early June, Mecca was projecting that it would end this year at an annual run rate of$100 million. While Mecca AI has not publicly disclosed its customer list, many robotics companies and AI labs rely on real-world data captured through this egocentric approach, alongside other physical data collection methods like teleoperation to build their models.

7:28That's all for now. For the latest in startup tech news, go to techcrunch.com.

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