--When I see it, I will believe it.
In April 2021, TAE, a California startup engaged in small-scale nuclear fusion research, raised $280 million in financing to develop a new generation of small-scale nuclear fusion devices.
Previously, the company raised a total of $920 million (about 6 billion yuan) in research and development funds, including investors.
It is foreseeable that with the launch of the company's new generation of small nuclear fusion devices, the company will receive more huge financial support.
So why did the U.S. invest tens of billions in a small fusion startup?
< > small nuclear fusion device start-up TAE
Founded in California in 1998, TAE is dedicated to developing and marketing the cleanest and most sustainable energy source ever created. Its unique approach to nuclear fusion combines plasma physics and accelerator physics, opening up a whole new avenue for fusion energy.
Since its inception, TAE has iterated on 5 models of small nuclear fusion units. After the success of the fourth-generation C-2W, also known as the Norman unit, a fifth-generation unit was launched in 2020.
TAE's fourth-generation nuclear fusion device
The core part of TAE's fourth-generation nuclear fusion device
The internal working state of the core part of TAE's fourth-generation nuclear fusion device
< second> the study of small-scale nuclear fusion has given birth to a large number of core intellectual property rights in this field
Since its inception, TAE has issued about 325 patents, most of which were published between 2013 and 2021. These patents cover nuclear fusion, accelerators, power management, etc., and important patents basically cover major scientific and technological powers, including China of course.
Therefore, once a breakthrough is made in the field of small-scale nuclear fusion, TAE's patent layout in the field of small-scale nuclear fusion in the world will obtain huge benefits for it.
TAE has issued approximately 325 patents
At the same time, TAE has published more than 300 papers, conference posters, conference reports and other materials in the past 20 years, a large part of which is peer-reviewed and all published publicly.
These public technical information, on the one hand, enhances the company's technical credibility, greatly enhances its financing ability and valuation, that is, advertising; on the other hand, it also promotes more enterprises and research units to participate in relevant research, thereby promoting the joint development and promotion of small nuclear fusion devices.
TaE has public papers releasing its latest developments almost every month.
< second> TAE's small nuclear fusion research has given birth to a large number of precision instruments
At the 2020 HEPD Annual Meeting in the United States, TAE introduced all of its small fusion device detection equipment, and I saw a staggering 68 items of detection equipment related to small nuclear fusion devices in this document!
At the 2020 HEPD Annual Meeting in the United States, TAE introduced all of its small fusion device testing equipment
I don't see all the details of the testing equipment, but from the few examples shown in this information, it is extremely professional and sophisticated equipment.
68 testing equipment introduced by TAE at the 2020 HEPD Annual Meeting in the United States
For example, the "charge exchange recombination spectroscopy" written on this page, the charge exchange composite energy spectrum, is one of the conventional diagnostics for measuring plasma ion temperature and rotation speed on nuclear fusion devices. The technical level of TAE's set of equipment needs to be carefully investigated.
Charge exchange composite energy spectroscopy of TAE
We can foresee that if there is a commercial trend of so many precision equipment, whether it is used for plasma physics research, nuclear fusion research, or expanded to other scientific research fields in the future, it will be a huge benefit.
I once introduced the commercialization of the high-priced Lyncean compact accelerator and Sigray's X-ray equipment incubated by the National Accelerator Laboratory of Stanford University in the United States, all of which are commercial technologies born from such cutting-edge equipment research. And these millions, tens of millions of pieces of equipment will bring huge profits to the first movers in technology.
Judging from my previous introduction cases, the commercialization ability of the United States in this regard is beyond doubt.
< four > new technology field derived from the research of TAE small nuclear fusion devices
2019: TAE establishes a life sciences company to promote cancer research on boron neutron capture therapy
2020: TAE Life Sciences receives $30 million in funding to accelerate the development of a unique boron delivery drug for novel cancer treatments
2020: TAE Life Sciences and the National Center for Therapy for Oncology Hadrons (CNAO) announces a research and clinical collaboration in Italy to implement a new boron neutron capture treatment system
Compact neutron source
Thanks to TAE's unique core technology, it has developed a compact neutron source that can be used in a new type of cancer treatment device, the boron neutron capture therapy BNCT.
BNCT is a biologically targeted radiotherapy that kills cancer at the cellular level. The technology uses a two-step process:
In the first step, the patient is injected with a tumor-targeted drug that contains non-toxic and non-radioactive boron-10.
In the second step, the target area is exposed to low-energy neutrons; When boron-10 interacts with neutrons, it emits short-range, high-energy charged particles that systematically destroy tumor cells with minimal damage to neighboring healthy tissue and lower side effects.
Therefore, BNCT is an attractive treatment for complex and recurrent cancers such as glioblastoma or head and neck tumors.
Schematic diagram of boron neutron capture therapy
BNCT is unique in its ability to provide targeted treatments to precisely destroy cancer cells and achieve compelling results in treating some of the most challenging cancers, including brain tumors, head and neck tumors, and melanoma. BNCT uses the benign boron-10 isotope in a targeted drug that is naturally embedded in fast-growing cancer cells and then receives a strong, highly localized dose of radiation activated by a low-energy neutron beam.
The combination of advanced boron formulations, modern accelerator-based neutron production technology and innovative software is paving the way for BNCT to become a new generation of cancer devices.
Therefore, BNCT technology will most likely develop into a very important and popular cancer treatment, and TAE, which has mastered the core compact neutron source, will undoubtedly gain a head start again, and it is very likely to get a rich return in this tens of billions of markets.
To my great surprise, it took only 2 years for TAE to go from project initiation to clinical development! The rapid commercial penetration capability of this cutting-edge technology is amazing!
< concluding >
Many Chinese people, when they see me introducing some advanced technologies in Europe and the United States, always leave a sentence of "latecomer advantage" and go away.
After reading this introductory essay, do you still think that China has always had a "latecomer advantage"?
Why am I seeing:
The United States is taking advantage of the "first-mover advantage of technology" in the past three decades, using the accumulation of semiconductors and lithography machines to harvest technological dividends around the world, so as to obtain huge funds to support the current small fusion research and development, and finally get the leading opportunity in the next 20 years.
The United States, which supports subversive small nuclear fusion device start-ups with a scale of investment of tens of billions, has given birth to a large number of unique core technology patents, a large number of talents, a large number of high-tech scientific equipment, and a new market of tens of billions, which is very worth learning and learning from China.
In fact, what is more frightening than these "by-products" is that once the small nuclear fusion devices of American companies are successful, they may form a dimensionality-reducing blow to China's energy industry.
And our country through the scale of 100 billion state investment to support solar energy, supported new energy, supported integrated circuits and other industries, can help China in exchange for the next generation of technology competition or leading position?
And what kind of results can be born from our 100 billion scale of scientific research investment?
How do we deal with round after round of technological bombardment by the United States?
We'll talk about it next time!
< reference>
TAE Homepage:https://tae.com/
Patent Information of TAE Corporation: https://patents.glgoo.top/?assignee=Tae+Technologies%2c+Inc.
TAE Company Thesis Material: https://tae.com/research-library/
TAE's Cancer Treatment Business: https://tae.com/tae-life-sciences/