All Access

Climate Deals

Standard

Climate Deals Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

Climate Deals Alerts

Alert

mustard

BFD Expert Voices - Climate Deals

BFD Expert Voices

topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

jobs

transportation

business

stock-market-news

retail-news

crypto

media

elon-musk

dealmaking

health

rfk-jr

drug-prices

axios-explains-abortion

public-health

world

israel

axios-explains-ukraine

iran

russia

china

energy-climate

nuclear-energy

climate-energy-policy

climate-change

extreme-weather

alternative-energy

electric-vehicles

science

emerging-tech

biomedicine

newsletters

pittsburgh

atlanta

san-diego

charlotte

boulder

washington-dc

kansas-city

dallas

denver

detroit

des-moines

austin

boston

chicago

cleveland

columbus

houston

indianapolis

miami

nashville

new-orleans

nw-arkansas

philadelphia

phoenix

portland

richmond

salt-lake-city

san-antonio

san-francisco

seattle

tampa-bay

twin-cities

raleigh

huntsville

colorado-springs

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

A century from now our civilization will wonder why we waited so long to invest in nuclear fusion, says TDK Ventures President Nicolas Sauvage.

Why it matters: The VC arm of Japanese electronics giant TDK is an active investor in climate tech, with $350 million assets under management across three funds and 38 portfolio companies.

Zoom in: The firm made its first investment in 2019 and has backed startups across sectors, including nuclear fusion upstart Type One Energy.

Sauvage says he's searching for "challenger technologies," which he describes as climate tech that's outside of the mature incumbent sectors of solar, wind and lithium-ion batteries.

TDK is investigating areas like industrial heat as well as more efficient forms of data center cooling, which Sauvage says will be important because of the exponential growth of data centers with AI.

This interview was lightly edited for clarity and length.

What in your opinion has been the biggest story in climate tech so far this month?

Type One Energy announced it is converting a former coal plant in Clinton, Tennessee into a nuclear fusion prototype plant.

This is both meaningful and highly symbolic to see coal upgraded toward a continuous green energy supply."

"We spend a lot of time thinking about 'challenger technologies' — ways to advance climate tech innovation in areas outside of incumbent solutions like solar and wind, often in counterintuitive ways.

Nuclear fusion and Type One Energy are a great example of a challenger technology."

By contrast, what do you think is going undernoticed in climate tech?

"The generative AI transformers need transformers on the electrical grid. So you need transformers for transformers."

What's one tip for either climate tech investors or founders?

"For investors, really do your deep explorations and build your conviction from first principles.

For the entrepreneurs, I think this is a time for them to consider building solutions for challenger technologies.

We don't need more engineers in solar, or wind."

"An engineering internship for Siemens using DSP Assembler code and working on surface acoustic waves.

It was all about sensing things with no power, so that you don't need batteries and electricity."

I'm very proud because of what it represents, but I'm also very proud for TDK which is a Japanese company, where nuclear has a stigma."

🤦🏻‍♂️ Facepalm investment or investment you wish you made:

"Two years ago, around AI, it was a pure software company.

Last month, we gave them a term sheet and it's not closed."

💡 In three-ish words, the change you would make to climate-tech investing:

Expert voices: TDK Venture's Nicolas Sauvage on fusion

The VC arm of TDK has $350M AUM and backed 38 startups

Photo illustration of President of TDK Ventures, Nicolas Sauvage with a pattern of TDK logos

TDK Ventures President Nicolas Sauvage. Photo illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios. Photo courtesy of TDK Ventures

Nuclear fusion

A century from now our civilization will wonder why we waited so long to invest in nuclear fusion, says TDK Ventures President Nicolas Sauvage.Why it matters: The VC arm of Japanese electronics giant TDK is an active investor in climate tech, with $350 million assets under management across three funds and 38 portfolio companies.

Expert voices: TDK Venture's Nicolas Sauvage on fusion

What to read next