The brain economy’s missing infrastructure
Preliminary figures shared by the McKinsey Health Institute at the recent Brain Economy Summit in Houston value collective US brain capital investments at …
Race to commercialize fusion power goes thermonuclear
Add tokamak vs. stellarator to the list of legendary technology battles like VHS vs. Betamax, Windows vs. Mac and Anthropic vs. OpenAI. The competition among startups racing to commercialize fusion power is heating up like the plasma in the magnetic…
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The Week’s Dealflow: July 24, 2026
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Where Temasek is looking for growth opportunities + Three impact summer reads
The Brief
Read by thousands of impact pros daily
TGIF, Agents of Impact! You deserve a break, and so do we. ImpactAlpha will be on our summer publishing hiatus to let the …
Today’s brief
This Week's Podcasts
🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: How Temasek, Singapore's $400 billion state-owned investment fund, positions itself as a generational investor; a look at three impact investing “beach reads,” out this week; and sustainable farm and timberland manager Alder Point lands $4 million from the Rockefeller Foundation to ramp up land acquisitions in rural communities.
The Week’s Spotlight
Race to commercialize fusion power goes thermonuclear. Add tokamak vs. stellarator to the list of legendary technology battles like VHS vs. Betamax, Windows vs. Mac, and Anthropic vs. OpenAI. The competition among startups racing to commercialize fusion power is heating up like the plasma in the magnetic fields of a fusion reactor. Those magnets can be donut-shaped, as in tokamaks, or twisted, in the case of stellarators. This month, Munich-based Proxima Fusion announced it had raised $468 million from investors including Google and RWE, the German utility, at a valuation of $2.7 billion, for its stellarator approach. Next week, Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems is expected to announce major new financing to build out its tokamak-based fusion reactor. Commonwealth has already raised nearly $3 billion, including an $863 million round last year, and has a valuation estimated at between $8 billion and $12.5 billion. Google is an investor in Commonwealth as well.
The Week’s Talent and Jobs
Djalal Khimdjee, formerly with Proparco, will take the helm of Africa50's Principal Investment Fund in August… Reinvestment Fund appointed Frank Fernandez, formerly with the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, as president and CEO, starting in September. He succeeds Donald Hinkle-Brown, who is launching a new consulting firm called Emergent Impacts.
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Impact Voices
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The United Nations' New York headquarters. Photo by Nils Huenerfuerst
2026 PRI reporting: Along comes the deadline
The Principles for Responsible Investment’s 2026 Transparency Reporting window closes July 29. As signatories ourselves and consultants to private fund managers across the …
Photo: Lal10
In India’s venture capital market, proximity pays
When I first started working in venture capital in India, what stood out to me was how differently the market functioned once I …
Benjamin Okezie Kalu, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria
Nigeria’s $500 billion invitation to climate investors
In May 2025, in Mokwa, Niger State, a devastating flood swept through homes in the early hours of the morning. Over 500 people …
Put concessional capital where the risk is: on the farm, not the solar panel
I have spent more than two decades financing renewable energy projects and providing blended finance to agri-SMEs in Africa. I have watched as …
A principled approach to measurement can improve place-based impact outcomes
Few things are more likely to make an impact leader screw up their face in discomfort than talking about measurement. It doesn’t matter …
Members of the cast and crew of Harvest
“Harvest” casts a rare spotlight on rural farming at Tribeca Festival premiere
The US was once a nation of farmers. In 1870, nearly half of the employed US population worked in agriculture. Today, there are …
More than a dozen climate and biodiversity collaboratives advance system-change in Latin America
Climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, and financing gaps are deeply interconnected. No single organization, investor or source of capital can address them alone. …
A farmer feeds cattle in Goiás, Brazil.
When farm credit fits the producer, it doubles as climate finance
Brazil is the world’s largest poultry exporter and one of its biggest dairy producers, yet the small and mid-sized farmers who supply those …
Shaping the Algorithm
The deals, people and strategies optimizing AI for the public interest. In partnership with Siegel Family Endowment.
Credit: Raven Outcomes
An Indigenous investor’s ‘net impact’ lens on AI: Extractive by design, reciprocal by choice
In much of impact investing, AI is being treated as no longer optional. New tools promising faster diligence, cleaner reporting, and more efficient …
Photo: ImpactAlpha
Generation Investment Management seeks to stamp AI with a mandate for sustainability
Artificial intelligence has been called the technology shift of a lifetime. For Generation Investment Management, it could also be the sustainability shift of, …
Credit: Compare Fibre / Unsplash
Amid trillion-dollar IPOs, impact investors seek pathways to steer technology towards shared prosperity
When SpaceX completed its IPO last month, many investors celebrated one of the most successful technology investments in modern history. The company raised …
Credit: Tim Gouw on Unsplash
Human agency is the next frontier for impact investing
For decades, impact investing has expanded our understanding of value. We learned that capital can generate financial returns while improving lives, strengthening communities, …
Rey Ramsey on moving from false choices to authentic leadership on AI and impact investing (podcast)
Rey Ramsey has spent his career refusing the options he’s been handed. Instead, he’s expanded the range of available choices, in housing, technology, …
Grace, hospitality and who we talk to
Host Joy Anderson welcomes her brother, the philosopher Joel Anderson, to discuss how AI is changing the way we work. While AI can …
Image: Stokkete, Shutterstock
Designing broad-based ownership of AI to share power along with wealth
A growing chorus of stakeholders is calling for “broad-based ownership” of AI. But what does that mean in practice? And what would move …
Greg Bulla // Unsplash
Google’s business is now dependent on AI. We’re asking the board to report on the risks.
Recently, Alphabet announced the ubiquitous Google search bar will be completely powered by artificial intelligence. This comes as the parent company of Google …
James Norman (Black Ops Capital) and Chef Noelle Prater (Marrow at the Market) | Photo credit: Transparent Collective
Detroit founders and investors recast the Motor City as an AI-era launchpad
Detroit, Mich. – Detroit is shedding its underdog stance for a more inclusive pitch: the Motor City as an AI-era launchpad where tech innovation …
Ownership Economy
Strategies for investing in the ownership economy, wealth-creation and shared prosperity, in partnership with Sorenson Impact Foundation.
New and bigger funds expand the ‘alternative ownership’ ecosystem
The growing number of ‘alternative ownership enterprises’ shows how varied the approaches to growing employee ownership have become. Since 2024, Transform Finance has …
Keewaywin Capital helps an Indigenous social services provider transition from building tenant to owner
The Gihekdagye Friendship Centre, an Indigenous social services organization, provides cultural and educational programming, health and wellness services, housing assistance and homelessness outreach …
Life, liberty and a share of the upside
As we celebrate the nation’s 250th, there’s been a lot of talk lately about the American dream, and I’ve gotten to be in …
Jason Gooljar / Unsplash
Investing in the American Dream as a long-term play to strengthen democracy
Ownership has long been at the center of the American dream. Home ownership is a hallmark of the middle class and small business …
Employee-owners at Apex Underground, an Apis & Heritage portfolio company. Photo courtesy of Ownership Capital Lab.
Why we launched the Employee Ownership Fund Accelerator
A recent McKinsey report puts the stakes of the Great Ownership Transition in stark terms. By 2035, roughly 6 million small and medium-size …
Image: Stokkete, Shutterstock
Designing broad-based ownership of AI to share power along with wealth
A growing chorus of stakeholders is calling for “broad-based ownership” of AI. But what does that mean in practice? And what would move …
Photo by P. Terry’s Burger Stand.
P. Terry’s Burger Stand converts to worker-ownership through an employee ownership trust
It was Patrick Terry’s childhood dream to own a burger stand. He and his wife Kathy opened one on a corner in Austin, …
Calvert Impact goes deep on wealth building with investments in employee and community ownership
Calvert Impact has long backed, or created, strategies that expand economic opportunity in underinvested communities. But ownership, the Bethesda, Maryland-based nonprofit impact investing …
Detroit Pistons forward Tobias Harris (12) in action (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Wealthy athletes are getting into the impact investing game
Tobias Harris is trying to keep his Detroit Pistons alive in the NBA playoffs, where they trail his former team, the Orlando Magic, …
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10 tips to speed your transition to an impact finance career
There is no denying that impact finance is one of the most sought after spaces in finance right now, but what does it …
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Avoiding toxic workplaces: A guide for impact job seekers
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