MON AM News: Realta Fusion in ‘final stretches’ of site selection for planned R&D facility; Wisconsin business groups split on impact of Supreme Court tariff ruling

February 23, 2026

— Realta Fusion is nearing a final decision in its site selection process for the planned “Realta Forge,” a dedicated R&D facility for fusion energy development.

The Madison-based startup company recently landed $9.5 million in new financing from a California bank, building on more than $45 million in venture capital investment the business has raised in recent years.

In addition to covering pay for staff, CEO Kieran Furlong says the new debt facility financing from Silicon Valley Bank will help Realta Fusion establish itself in a new space, enabling the critical next phase of scaling up its fusion machines.

The growing business now has about 40 employees in Madison, including physicists and engineers. They’ve so far been working in partnership with UW-Madison, using machines at the university’s Physical Sciences laboratory.

“The next step for us is we’re going to fit out our own, I’ll say purpose-retrofitted R&D facility we call the Realta Forge, and that’s where we’re building our next fusion machine,” Furlong said in a recent interview. “We’re getting to the scale of plasma, the scale of magnets and so on that we anticipate seeing in a future fusion power plant.”

The company has entered the “final stretches” of site selection, eyeing facilities with sufficient existing power access, he said. The plan is to be set up in a new space sometime this year.

The limiting factor for the Realta Forge site will be its electrical power needs, according to Furlong. While the company’s goal is to eventually produce and sell electricity, the earlier stages of development will need a dependable energy supply.

Furlong said choosing an established facility to retrofit will allow the company to “accelerate even faster” than building from scratch on a greenfield site.

“That’s going to enable us not just to have, you know, a larger home for our growing team, but also R&D facility space where we can start building test stands for some of the components that we need for our next fusion machine, as well as starting construction on that fusion machine itself,” he said.

The company’s approach to fusion energy involves heating plasma to temperatures that are 10 times higher than the core of the sun, Furlong explained. Because some of the components needed for that have such long lead times, the company has already put in orders for pieces that will be used as far out as 2028.

“So construction has begun, in one way, with placing those orders,” he said.

Realta Fusion is still targeting the mid-2030s for selling and producing commercial fusion energy, in the form of electricity and industrial process heat. But Furlong said the team is “always looking for ways” to accelerate that timeline.

“That’s just the necessity of startup life,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re charging as fast as we can toward commercial fusion energy. We do not want to have a scientific success, but [have] it be too late to matter when it comes to the energy markets.”

See more in an earlier story on the company.

— Wisconsin business groups are divided on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, offering split views on the impact.

After the court’s decision was handed down Friday morning, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce President and CEO Kurt Bauer said the development “adds to an already confusing tariff landscape.” He noted uncertainty is among the top threats to business success.

“Businesses will be left to wonder how this decision will impact their customers and vendors,” he said in a statement. “Sadly, there are more questions than answers at this point.”

Meanwhile, the head of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce is hailing the court’s decision. Dale Kooyenga, the group’s president and a former Republican state lawmaker, noted the Supreme Court has limited the president’s ability to use emergency powers for “sweeping, across-the-board” tariffs.

While he said “narrowly tailored” tariffs can be appropriate in some cases, Kooyenga argued taking a one-size-fits-all approach leads to higher costs across the economy.

“Broad and unpredictable tariffs function as a tax on American businesses and consumers, creating uncertainty that makes it difficult for companies to plan, hire and grow … Today’s ruling reinforces the importance of predictability in economic policy,” he said. “Businesses need stable policy decision-making to remain competitive and sustain jobs in the region.”

But Poonam Arora, president of the board for the Madison International Trade Association, noted the court hasn’t outlined whether or how refunds for the tariffs that have already been collected will be handled. She is director of global trade compliance and government contracts for Arnold Magnetics.

Arora also referenced Trump’s move Friday to impose a 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, though this would expire after 150 days without action from Congress, according to an overview from the Council on Foreign Relations.

“So, this is a lot of chaos and confusion at the moment,” Arora said in an email.

Trump on Friday slammed the justices behind the court’s decision, calling them a “disgrace to our nation.” He noted his administration has alternative avenues for replacing the tariffs the court has rejected.

“Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic, they’re so happy, and they’re dancing in the streets but they won’t be dancing for long, that I can assure you,” Trump said during a press conference.

He added: “Could be more money, we’ll take in more money. And we’ll be a lot stronger for it. We’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. We’ll continue to do so.”

The court’s decision comes after the United States brought in $289 billion from gross tariffs and certain other excise taxes in 2025, according to a report from the Bipartisan Policy Center. That’s well above any other recent year, as the highest annual total going back to 2017 was about $116 billion, the report shows.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin also weighed in on the tariff development, arguing the president’s “reckless” trade war has led to higher costs for families and industry as well as disruption to agricultural markets.

“The on-again-off-again trade war has simply been chaos for Wisconsin families and businesses,” the Madison Dem said in a statement. “Today, we saw the Supreme Court rein in this lawless president and slap down his out-of-control tariffs, but the increased costs and uncertainty that Wisconsinites are still navigating is irreversible and will have long lasting impacts.”

Friday’s ruling impacts the “reciprocal” tariffs imposed by Trump, including the baseline 10% tariff hitting nearly all imports, in addition to tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China for which fentanyl has been used as justification by the administration. That’s according to analysis by the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich in Milwaukee.

Tariffs enacted under other authorities than the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — the subject of the court’s decision — will remain in place, the firm says. That includes Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives and Section 301 tariffs, used by the president in his first term.

Other tariff avenues remaining to Trump include Sections 301, 201 and 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, as well as Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, according to the analysis. Some of these options involve different restrictions and requirements, such as a shorter time frame or mandated investigations.

— The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is seeking a judicial review of a judge’s recent decision to uphold a DNR permit for the controversial Line 5 reroute.

The nonprofit law firm Earthjustice, which is representing the band, on Friday announced a petition for judicial review in Iron County Circuit Court challenging Administrative Law Judge Angela Chaput Foy’s move to uphold the state Department of Natural Resources permit for the reroute project.

The tribal group has also filed a motion for an immediate stay to stop construction on the reroute until the court can hear the legal claims, according to the announcement.

Elizabeth Arbuckle, chairwoman for the band, said the watershed “is not an oil pipeline corridor that exists to serve Enbridge’s profits,” emphasizing the tribe’s connection to the natural environment.

“For generations, the Bad River — Mashkiiziibii — and the waters that flow into Lake Superior have nurtured our healthy walleye, sustained our wild rice beds, and kept our community vibrant and strong … It is our homeland. We must protect it,” she said.

Meanwhile, Earthjustice Senior Associate Attorney John Petoskey slammed Chaput Foy’s “flawed” decision, arguing it ignores important evidence and lacks legal standing. He said upholding the state agency permit poses an “existential risk” to the tribal nation.

“Enbridge’s proposal to blast, trench, and drill through hundreds of upstream wetlands and waterways could destroy these sacred waters and trample the rights protected by tribal treaties signed with the United States government,” he said in a statement.

Last week’s decision to uphold the permit was heralded by project advocates who say it’s critical to ensure energy access in the region. Supporters are touting the economic impact of the work, noting it will create jobs and support key industries.

See more in a recent WisBusiness story.

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