Founder’s Vision

Leading the transition to the fusion economy

These are the questions that would ultimately shape SHINE:

What if, instead of chasing a series of major breakthroughs in a moonshot effort, we could grow organically toward a fusion-powered future while creating value for a society as we learned?

And what if the fastest way to master complex problems is through real-world application? 

Read the Founder’s Letter
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ORIGIN

Why fusion must be built in the real world

Greg Piefer explains why he founded SHINE — and why he believes commercial practice is the most rational path to abundant fusion energy.

THE PREMISE

“What if, instead of attempting to make a single giant leap forward, we could make significant but reasonable steps toward commercial fusion energy?”

Greg Piefer, Founder & CEO

On commercializing fusion

Fusion’s markets already exist. Its neutrons test critical aerospace components and produce medicine, and at low volume they’re worth far more than the energy they carry. Real customers pay for real products, and that revenue funds what comes next.

On making fusion cost-effective

The hardest problem in fusion is economics. SHINE has driven down the cost of fusion significantly since our first deployment in 2014. That progress comes from building machines, running them for paying customers, and improving with every iteration.

On SHINE's fusion flywheel

Our products are our milestones. Each turn of the fusion flywheel builds the technology, human capital, operating experience and economic engine needed to advance the next, creating a practical path toward fusion energy.

Perspectives on Fusion

Explore articles, interviews, videos and perspectives on fusion, commercialization and the ideas shaping SHINE.

Nuclear Fusion vs Fission: Understanding the Difference

Jul 7, 2026
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Press Release: SHINE and C-Ray Therapeutics Establish Strategic Partnership for Exclusive Distribution of Non-Carrier-Added Lu-177 in Mainland China

Mar 26, 2026
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How Does Nuclear Fusion Work?

Mar 8, 2022
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newsroom

Latest by Greg

How Far Away Is Fusion, Really? What the SXSW Debate Revealed

Read more about How Far Away Is Fusion, Really? What the SXSW Debate Revealed

Press Release: SHINE and C-Ray Therapeutics Establish Strategic Partnership for Exclusive Distribution of Non-Carrier-Added Lu-177 in Mainland China

Read more about Press Release: SHINE and C-Ray Therapeutics Establish Strategic Partnership for Exclusive Distribution of Non-Carrier-Added Lu-177 in Mainland China

LETTER FROM OUR FOUNDER

As a child, I spent recesses with my nose in a book reading everything I could about humanity’s next high-tech frontiers, like high-energy particle physics, energy generation and space travel, among others. One of the most exciting things was nuclear fusion: technology that could massively improve our access to energy. I learned there was enough deuterium in the Earth’s oceans to power our world with carbon free energy for tens of billions of years and dreamed of helping realize this potential.

My fascination became a mission when, at my university, I watched trains haul mountains of coal every few days into a heating plant that only provided enough energy to keep just a part of the university warm. I imagined this process at a global scale; at the cost and consequence of all the mining, transportation, and carbon released to fuel our way of life. I remembered what I had learned years ago, that the fusion fuel needed to power the entire United States for a year could fit in a fraction of that one train. It was at that moment I decided to spend my life building a fusion-powered future and enrolled in the fusion technology program at UW-Madison.

The program focused on engineering and operations: what would it take to move fusion from a science experiment to a competitive power source? The takeaway for me was daunting; fusion required some of the most exotic systems ever made to be placed in the harshest conditions ever created while being cost competitive with existing energy sources like windmills. While theoretically possible, it was clear it would take a phenomenal investment of money and scale to get there.

That led me to the question that would ultimately shape SHINE.

What if, instead of chasing a series of major breakthroughs in a moonshot effort, we could grow organically toward a fusion-powered future while creating value for society as we learned? And what if the fastest way to master complex problems is through real-world application?

I realized this path is a proven strategy that has scaled some of the most impactful industries in human history. Semiconductors started in niche, high-value applications that justified reinvestment in better technology and growth. Over time, this flywheel effect reduced the cost of compute by trillions of times and took us from simple guidance systems for military aircraft to the AI technology reshaping the world today. EVs, solar panels, commercial spaceflight and many other industries scaled the same way.

I founded SHINE to eliminate energy as a constraint on human growth, because the flywheel model gave me conviction we could achieve the goal. Today, we’ve built an entire fusion delivery platform based on it. As we deploy into real markets, we build, operate, learn and innovate, which leads to better products on a greater scale. As cost comes down and the platform scales, we access progressively larger markets. This approach puts economic principles in the driver’s seat and creates a durable business. Based on our progress so far—shown side by side with semiconductors below—I believe this approach has also put us on a very fast and robust path to commercial fusion energy.

Selection of the product mix to drive the flywheel is crucial. So, we devised a simple thesis: only pursue products that advance our long-term mission. For every opportunity we examined, we had to pass three gates: Would deploying there move us closer to fusion energy? Would it solve an important problem with enough scale to fuel growth? Did fusion have a genuine advantage? If yes, the product was selected. Then products were ranked by unit economics, not total market size. This let us deploy into commercial markets immediately while rapidly building our platform.

As we scale, our products are our milestones on the path to fusion energy. Each new product achieves lower unit cost and larger scale than the last. Some argue this path is slower than chasing the moonshot. But our progress so far rivals semiconductors.

Our products are more than just milestones. Each meets an important need in the world today. Our testing products make the world safer by ensuring the integrity of key products from defense systems to aircraft and spacecraft to nuclear infrastructure. Our medical products make the world healthier by ensuring a reliable supply of vital medicines used to diagnose and treat millions of patients each year. Our recycling products will improve energy security and make nuclear power sustainable by transforming used fuel from a liability into a valuable resource. And ultimately, our fusion energy will elevate the entire human economy by delivering abundant, carbon-free energy at a scale and cost no other energy technology can match.

Ultimately, fusion promises to achieve the purpose on which I founded SHINE: make energy so cheap and available that it is no longer a constraint on human growth. Each of these products is worth developing on their own, but together, we believe they create the most exciting opportunity in hard tech today.

The companies that commercialize fusion will be among the most important of our time. A bet on SHINE is a bet on a team that has already brought fusion to market and has rapidly improved its cost profile while holding the world record for continuous fusion output. It’s a bet on a proven playbook: deploy into markets with the best unit economics and use the learning and earnings to scale and grow. And it’s a bet on a future for humankind in which energy is no longer a constraint on the growth of our civilization. This is my bet, and I hope it’s yours too.

Greg Piefer, Founder and CEO