Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ Brandon Sorbom and Helion’s David Kirtley on bringing fusion to the grid at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will host a session titled “Bringing Fusion to the Grid” featuring Brandon Sorbom of Commonwealth Fusion Systems and David Kirtley of Helion. The conversation will focus on how recent scientific and engineering advances can be translated into reliable, grid-connected power plants, and on the remaining challenges to commercial deployment. Sorbom, who co-founded CFS in 2018 and serves as its chief science officer, will discuss the company’s roadmap from SPARC — its demonstration fusion machine — to ARC, the planned commercial plant. Recent company moves highlighted in the session include an application to PJM Interconnection and a July financing round that added $1 billion and brought CFS’s total funding to $4 billion. Kirtley will bring Helion’s perspective on delivering commercial-scale fusion electricity. Helion reported that its Polaris prototype heated plasma to 150 million degrees Celsius in February, and is developing Orion, a 50-megawatt plant planned to supply electricity to Microsoft as early as 2028. The company also marked regulatory progress in June and closed a Series G round at $500 million in September after announcing $465 million in June. The session will compare the different technical approaches and business steps each company is taking, emphasizing that scientific milestones are only part of the path to operation: companies must also meet regulatory requirements, secure financing, and complete engineering needed to connect plants to wholesale markets. Organizers position the discussion for founders, investors and technology leaders seeking a closer look at what it will take to move fusion from experimental setups to commercial power on the grid.