Casimir Inc., a startup that kept its work hidden until this week, just announced it raised $10 million from venture capital firms ready to bet on a device that claims to turn the Casimir force into usable free energy. The Casimir force is real—it’s the tiny attraction or repulsion between two uncharged metal plates placed extremely close together due to quantum fluctuations in empty space. But turning that force into a power source violates the first law of thermodynamics, which says energy can’t be created or destroyed, only converted. Casimir Inc. didn’t respond to questions about how their device supposedly sidesteps this rule or when a working prototype might appear. The company didn’t even confirm whether they’ve built one yet or just ran computer simulations. Their last public project, the EM-drive, became infamous for claiming to produce thrust without propellant, which would break Newton’s laws of motion. The EM-drive was never replicated outside its creators’ lab and was widely dismissed as impossible, but it did inspire a scene in the TV show Salvation where the device was treated as a real, if poorly understood, technology. Investors who backed the EM-drive seem willing to give Casimir Inc. another shot, even though physicists have repeatedly called the idea of extracting useful energy from the Casimir force nonsense. The company’s name is a direct nod to Hendrik Casimir, the Dutch physicist who first described the effect in 1948, but there’s no evidence the startup is connected to his work or any peer-reviewed research in the field. Their website is a single page with a vague mission statement and no technical details. The Casimir force itself is tiny—measurable only at distances less than a micron—and extracting anything close to useful power from it would require overcoming enormous engineering hurdles. Even if the device worked as claimed, it would violate conservation of energy, which is why the physics community isn’t holding its breath. ## The investors aren’t betting on physics, they’re betting on hype Casimir Inc.’s backers include several venture firms that made their names chasing moonshots and often lose money on bad bets. One of their lead investors also funded the EM-drive back in 2016, when it was briefly touted as a breakthrough in space propulsion. That device promised to turn electricity directly into thrust without any fuel, which would have rewritten rocket science. Independent labs quickly showed the claimed thrust was likely an artifact of measurement errors or thermal effects. But the idea stuck in pop culture, thanks in part to its cameo in Salvation, where it was treated as a plausible, if poorly understood, technology. Now those same investors are betting on Casimir Inc.’s claim that the Casimir force can be coaxed into providing free, limitless energy. The startup’s pitch is that quantum fluctuations in empty space contain latent energy that can be harvested. Physicists immediately counter that the Casimir force is a negative result—it’s what’s left when you subtract the energy of empty space from itself. There’s no energy to extract. Even if you could, tapping into it would require breaking the second law of thermodynamics, which governs entropy and ensures perpetual motion machines stay fictional. ## What’s next for Casimir Inc. The company has no peer-reviewed papers, no working prototype, and no clear path to demonstrating either. Their website lists no team members beyond a CEO with a background in aerospace marketing, not quantum physics. Their last known public move was filing a patent application in 2023 for a device described only as a “quantum vacuum energy extractor.” The application is under review, and patent examiners often reject such claims outright unless they include rigorous experimental proof. The venture capital firms backing Casimir Inc. didn’t return requests for comment, but their willingness to fund the project suggests they’re playing the long odds rather than betting on science. For now, the company is operating in stealth mode again, with no scheduled demos, no public talks, and no plans to share data. Until they can show a working device—or at least a convincing theoretical model that doesn’t violate known physics—their claims remain in the realm of hopeful speculation. If they do manage to build something, it would rewrite physics textbooks. If they don’t, their investors will likely chalk it up to another exotic tech flop and move on.

What You Need to Know

  • Source: Ars Technica
  • Published: May 15, 2026 at 15:07 UTC
  • Category: Technology
  • Topics: #arstechnica · #tech · #science · #startups · #casimir · #casimir-inc

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Curated by GlobalBR News · May 15, 2026

🇧🇷 Resumo em Português

O impossível virou possível? Uma startup dos Estados Unidos anunciou ter descoberto como transformar a força de Casimir — um fenômeno quântico que atua em nanoescala — em energia livre, levantando milhões em investimentos e reacendendo a discussão sobre fontes energéticas revolucionárias. Se comprovada, a tecnologia poderia redefinir o mercado global de energia, reduzindo a dependência de combustíveis fósseis e impulsionando uma transição energética mais rápida.

A força de Casimir, prevista teoricamente em 1948 e observada experimentalmente décadas depois, descreve uma atração ou repulsão entre objetos separados por distâncias extremamente pequenas, devido a flutuações quânticas no vácuo. Embora o fenômeno já seja utilizado em aplicações como micro e nano-sensores, sua aplicação para geração de energia ainda é um tabu científico. No Brasil, onde a busca por alternativas energéticas limpas é urgente — especialmente diante dos desafios climáticos e da matriz predominantemente hidrelétrica —, a notícia ganha contornos ainda mais relevantes. Especialistas, no entanto, mantêm ceticismo: a maioria das pesquisas sobre energia livre enfrenta obstáculos teóricos e práticos, como a violação das leis da termodinâmica, o que torna o anúncio da startup alvo de ceticismo até que provas concretas sejam apresentadas.

Resta aguardar os próximos passos: a empresa promete demonstrações públicas nos próximos meses, enquanto a comunidade científica se prepara para analisar — ou desmentir — mais uma promessa de energia infinita.

🇪🇸 Resumen en Español

El mundo de la energía da un giro inesperado con una startup que promete revolucionar el sector usando un fenómeno físico hasta ahora teórico: el efecto Casimir. Con una inversión millonaria recién captada, la empresa asegura poder convertir esta fuerza en una fuente de energía limpia y gratuita, aunque los expertos piden cautela.

El efecto Casimir, descrito en 1948 por el físico Hendrik Casimir, consiste en la aparición de una fuerza atractiva entre dos placas metálicas muy próximas en el vacío, debido a fluctuaciones cuánticas. Aunque su existencia está demostrada, su explotación energética sigue siendo un misterio para la ciencia convencional. Si esta startup logra materializarlo, podría redefinir el mercado energético, reduciendo la dependencia de combustibles fósiles. Sin embargo, la comunidad científica muestra escepticismo, recordando que promesas similares en el pasado no han pasado de ser experimentos fallidos, lo que obliga a esperar resultados tangibles antes de cantar victoria.