en.Wedoany.com Reported - On July 15, 2026, magnetic mirror fusion energy company Realta Fusion announced that the Wisconsin state government and the City of Madison will jointly provide up to $55 million in incentive funding to support the construction of its corporate headquarters and fusion research facility at OM Station (the former Oscar Mayer factory site) in Madison. The project, named "Realta Forge," is expected to create over 600 technical and non-technical jobs.
The incentive package consists of three parts: approximately $37.5 million in state sales and use tax exemptions, up to $15 million in performance-based Enterprise Zone (EZ) tax credits from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), and $2.8 million in tax increment financing approved by the City of Madison. The sales tax exemption directly benefits from Wisconsin Act 165, signed in April of this year, which is the first standalone legislation in the United States to exempt capital expenditures for fusion energy projects from state sales tax. Governor Tony Evers stated that this move aims to leverage Wisconsin's advantages in world-class research universities, laboratories, and a high-skilled workforce combined with a supply chain network.
The site selection process took nearly two years, with Realta considering multiple states including Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Tennessee. CEO Kieran Furlong said the team spent considerable time searching nationwide for the most favorable business environment and attractive location, ultimately finding it in their own backyard.
The core device of Realta Forge is a magnetic mirror fusion verification device named "Hammir." Realta's technology pathway is based on the CoSMo (Compact, Scalable, Modular) fusion energy system, with its physics foundation rooted in magnetic mirror confinement, which uses strong magnetic fields at both ends to confine high-temperature plasma within a linear vacuum chamber.
Unlike toroidal tokamaks, the "open" magnetic field line structure of the magnetic mirror device inherently features two characteristics: first, particles escaping from the ends can be captured by direct energy converters and converted into electricity; second, the linear geometry simplifies the system structure, making maintenance and diagnostics more convenient. In July 2024, Realta and the University of Wisconsin-Madison achieved a magnetic field strength of 17 Tesla using high-temperature superconducting magnets on the WHAM device and successfully confined plasma. The Earth's magnetic field is approximately 50 microtesla, meaning 17 Tesla is about 340,000 times stronger. This record provided key validation for the design of Hammir.
Realta Fusion was spun out from the WHAM experimental program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022 and operates the "HTS Axisymmetric" experimental fusion device there. By locating its headquarters and R&D center at the former Oscar Mayer factory, CEO Furlong joked that this could be described as a transition from a sausage factory to a fusion center.
Realta Fusion is a global leader in magnetic mirror fusion energy, developing compact, scalable, and modular CoSMo fusion energy systems based on the magnetic mirror confinement concept.
Previously, the company completed a $36 million Series A funding round led by Future Ventures and Khosla Ventures in May 2025, and secured a $9.5 million growth credit line from Silicon Valley Bank in February 2026. It is also one of eight companies selected for the U.S. Department of Energy's flagship "Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program." In 2026, the company was named a "Technology Pioneer" by the World Economic Forum.
In April 2026, Realta entered into a long-term strategic partnership with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a leader in high-temperature superconducting magnets. CFS will develop superconducting magnets for Realta's demonstration prototype and future commercial power plants, with the agreement's potential value reaching billions of dollars.
The Realta Forge headquarters complex covers over 200,000 square feet and is expected to break ground before the end of the year. Once completed, it will serve as the company's headquarters and dedicated R&D center for magnetic mirror fusion technology, while also helping establish Wisconsin as a regional hub for fusion research, advanced manufacturing, and high-skilled engineering jobs. With global fusion industry financing reaching $4.476 billion in new funding over the past 12 months, Wisconsin is leveraging both policy legislation and industrial investment to secure its position in this energy race.
