Special Competitive Research Projects (SCSP) Chairman Jiri Bajraktari and Deputy Director for Fusion Nicholas Furst reflected on the United States’ role in the global fusion field and emphasized that international cooperation and coordination is essential for commercial fusion energy.
The global race for fusion energy began in December 2022, when researchers at the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) successfully ignited the first fusion. The experiment, which released more energy than was put into the target, proved that energy-positive fusion reactions are no longer an abstraction limited to theory and simulation. In fact, its influence extended far beyond science.
The first country to achieve commercial fusion energy will gain tangible advantages in energy security, industrial competitiveness, and geopolitical influence. For the United States, this prospect presents both tremendous opportunity and growing challenges. China is already making decisive moves, pouring resources into fusion infrastructure, talent pipelines, and supply chains. While the United States is brimming with innovation, private investment, and scientific know-how, it remains hampered by misaligned budgets and aging public facilities.
If the United States wants to maintain its advantage, it needs to leverage the strengths of its allies, including Britain. Together, the two companies can build a transatlantic fusion partnership that can outperform competitors, accelerate adoption, and define the rules of the emerging fusion economy.
stake
The importance of nuclear fusion as a potential source of abundant and available clean energy is indisputable. The countries that achieve it first will reap huge benefits, have the opportunity to reshape energy markets and secure energy independence. Critics will argue that it is, and always will be, technology 20 years away, but there is reason to believe it is now within reach. Recent advances in plasma physics, artificial intelligence (AI), and key enabling technologies (such as high-temperature superconducting magnets), combined with unprecedented investment from the private sector, have fueled explosive growth in this industry and persuaded many countries to expand their budgets and shorten the timelines of their fusion programs.
China is no exception. For evidence of its ambition, just look at the amount of money the company is willing to spend. The bipartisan Commission on Scaling up Fusion Energy revealed that China has mobilized more than $6.5 billion for fusion energy since NIF achieved ignition. This is roughly three times the amount the U.S. government spent on fusion energy science programs during the same period. This follows the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) pattern of adjusting the economy to exclude competition in key technology and emerging technology markets.
China’s strategic advantage
The battery electric vehicle (BEV) industry provides perhaps the best example of how state intervention can cool market competition. The Chinese Communist Party invested a total of $230.9 billion in the BEV industry from 2009 to 2023, of which $25 billion was earmarked for research and development (R&D) programs. This shocked me. Over the past decade, Chinese companies have sold more than 80% of all BEVs to the domestic market each year. In 2025, China’s BEV exports are expected to exceed those of the United States for the second year in a row, this time by more than 200,000 units. Also this year, China significantly outperformed the United States in 91 countries and regions, while the United States only had a narrow lead in 29 countries and regions.
Although China has not yet made investments of this magnitude in the fusion field, red flags are flashing. Recent developments in several high-profile infrastructure projects demonstrate that the Chinese government is serious about closing key science and technology gaps that impede technology commercialization. Once successful, China will be able to use economic incentives and industrial power to dominate the market, as it has done not only with BEVs but also with solar panels, wind turbines, and nuclear fission reactors.
Despite thriving private innovation, the United States must contend with a lack of public capacity to support the risky and capital-intensive research needed to bring fusion to market. Decades of technological advances have reduced America’s public research and development infrastructure to its old-fashioned status, and the critical testing facilities that China is actively building are prohibitively expensive for a single fusion company to finance. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognizes the ecological challenges this poses and recently launched a “Public Infrastructure Delivery” strategy that will enable the industry to “scale up into the 2030s.” However, if the United States goes it alone as governments cut science budgets, there is little guarantee of progress toward closing these gaps on the relevant timelines.
Fusion partnership with emphasis on commercialization
The rationale for collaboration is clear. The United States offers deep scientific expertise, liquid capital markets, and a robust startup ecosystem. The UK has major research and development facilities and an advanced regulatory regime. Together they can form a partnership that is greater than the sum of its parts. There is plenty of room to adjust fusion research and development, talent exchange, and regulatory harmonization, to name a few priorities.
The DOE notes that it is important to have access to UK blanket and fuel cycle research and development facilities in the near future. The two governments also recognize opportunities to jointly conduct AI-enabled science on fusion energy. Recent partnerships between researchers and companies in the AI stack, including DOE and AMD, Princeton Plasma Physics Institute and Microsoft, and Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Google DeepMind, are poised to accelerate innovation in digital twins, plasma control, and device performance.
Equally important is a shared belief in the power of private enterprise. The UK decided to regulate nuclear fusion separately from fission in 2023, establishing itself as a pioneer. The United States soon followed suit. Building on this progress, the US-UK Technology Prosperity Agreement explicitly calls for collaboration on “pro-innovation policies and regulations” to foster a global convergence market.
Policymakers have an opportunity to capitalize on this momentum. In particular, the two countries should consider incorporating the U.S.-Japan and U.S.-Korea Technology Prosperity Agreements into broader scientific and industrial alliances. The Coalition will build on the UK’s recently signed Memorandum of Cooperation with Japan on fusion energy and will prioritize mutual opportunities for fusion-related foreign direct investment.
Competition through collaboration
The British Chargé d’Affaires to the United States put it well when he said that nuclear fusion is no longer a matter of “energy policy” but of “geopolitical policy.” While China’s advantage comes from scale and centralization, our advantage may come from research collaboration and private sector innovation. A co-led coalition, supported by public programs and private innovation from each partner, can pioneer plasma physics and power plant engineering while setting international standards that enable governments and industry to move forward in lockstep. Coordination will enable countries to de-risk R&D, demonstration and deployment through cutting-edge research that reduces technological uncertainties and creates new efficiencies.
The winner in the nuclear fusion race will be those who combine scientific excellence with industrial ability. By working together to build a fusion ecosystem based on openness, innovation, and trust, Washington and London can hasten the arrival of commercial fusion energy and define global standards for future use.
This article will also be published in the quarterly magazine issue 24.
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