This Week’s Fusion News: October 10, 2025
Things You Gotta Know
Bipartisan Panel Calls on US to Inject $10B into Fusion Power
The Special Competitive Studies Project’s Commission on the Scaling of Fusion Energy, co-chaired by Senators Jim Risch and Maria Cantwell, released a final report calling for $10 billion in federal investment to ensure U.S. victory in the global fusion energy race against China, which has already committed at least $6.5 billion and potentially over $10 billion to fusion development. The bipartisan commission recommends declaring fusion a national security priority through presidential executive order, launching a national goal to break ground on multiple industry-led demonstration plants before the end of the current presidential term, and implementing strategic actions to streamline regulatory processes and build domestic supply chains. The report warns that while the U.S. has led in fusion science, stagnant government funding puts America at risk of losing the multi-trillion-dollar commercialization race and critical national security advantages to China’s state-backed development infrastructure.
Governor Newsom Signs Legislation to Advance California’s Position as the Epicenter of Global Innovation
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 80, allocating $5 million to create the Fusion Research and Development Innovation Initiative aimed at delivering the world’s first fusion energy pilot project in California by the 2040s to support the state’s 100% clean electricity goal by 2045. The legislation builds on California’s position as the national fusion leader, hosting both premier U.S. fusion research centers—the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where researchers achieved first fusion ignition in December 2022—along with the largest concentration of fusion private investment firms and talent. Alongside fusion funding, Newsom also signed Assembly Bill 940 creating a statewide quantum technology strategy and announced $4 million in additional quantum research funding, positioning California to maintain its dominance in both emerging technology sectors that are priority areas under the California Jobs First Economic Blueprint.
Can Nuclear Fusion Save the Planet?
Nuclear fusion has evolved from a purely public-sector research endeavor into a competitive private industry with at least 53 companies worldwide—including 29 in the US, eight in the EU, and four in the UK—having raised nearly $9 billion in private investment plus $795 million in public funding to commercialize the technology that could provide near-limitless zero-carbon power. While the 2022 National Ignition Facility breakthrough achieved net energy gain in the fusion reaction itself, the overall system still consumed more grid power than it produced, and even optimistic projections place widespread commercial deployment in the 2040s, meaning fusion is unlikely to significantly reduce emissions before 2050. The most advanced player, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, aims to activate its Massachusetts demonstration plant in 2027 and supply grid electricity by the early 2030s, competing with ventures backed by Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, and energy majors including Eni and Chevron, though executives acknowledge billions more in investment will be required to achieve commercial viability.
Fusion: The 24/7 Solution Renewables Can’t Match
In a direct critique of the limitations of wind and solar, this PowerMag editorial frames fusion as the only non-carbon technology that can truly replace fossil fuels without compromise. Unlike renewables, which are weather-dependent and require massive land use and storage, fusion offers dense, dispatchable, around-the-clock power with zero emissions. The author argues that fusion is not just a supplement to clean energy—it’s the missing pillar. As commercialization nears, fusion’s ability to support heavy industry, AI-era data centers, and global electrification positions it as the backbone of a truly resilient energy future.
With Major U.S. Investment, UW-Madison Leads Effort to Advance Abundant Fusion Energy for All
The University of Wisconsin-Madison received a $19 million Department of Energy Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) award to lead a multi-institution project developing and testing fusion blanket technology—the critical multifunctional layer that extracts heat for electricity generation, produces tritium fuel, and withstands intense radiation in fusion reactors. The four-year project will conduct groundbreaking experiments validating lead-lithium and lithium-beryllium fluoride (FLiBe) blanket materials using SHINE Technologies’ FLARE facility, which provides the world’s highest neutron flux for fusion testing, and the Wisconsin High-Temperature Superconducting Axisymmetric Mirror (WHAM) device to assess cooling performance under powerful magnetic fields. The research directly benefits commercial fusion developers including UW-Madison spinoffs SHINE Technologies and Realta Fusion, as well as Type One Energy and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, while laying groundwork for a volumetric neutron source facility essential for testing blanket components at commercial scale.
New Prediction Model Could Improve the Reliability of Fusion Power Plants
MIT researchers developed a machine learning model published in Nature Communications that predicts plasma behavior during tokamak rampdowns—the critical shutdown phase where plasma instabilities can cause interior damage requiring costly repairs—by combining neural networks with physics-based plasma simulations to achieve high accuracy using limited experimental data. The model was trained and validated on data from Switzerland’s TCV tokamak and successfully generated practical control trajectories that ramped down plasma safely and faster than traditional methods, demonstrating the potential to prevent disruptions in high-energy commercial fusion systems. Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout developing the SPARC demonstration tokamak designed to produce net-energy plasma, is supporting the research as part of efforts to enable safe and reliable fusion power by addressing plasma management challenges critical to grid-scale operations.
Tokamak Energy Signs Strategic HTS Collaboration with Gauss Fusion
UK-based Tokamak Energy and European fusion technology firm Gauss Fusion have formed a strategic partnership to advance high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet technology and accelerate commercial fusion deployment through combined expertise in innovative magnet design and fusion energy industrialization. The collaboration represents a pan-European industrial alliance aimed at strengthening Europe’s strategic autonomy in clean energy technology by pooling technical capabilities for design development, integration testing, and scaling to commercial production. The partnership underscores the growing recognition that fusion commercialization requires cross-border industrial cooperation, with Tokamak Energy’s TE Magnetics division bringing specialized HTS expertise to complement Gauss Fusion’s market leadership in fusion industrialization as both companies work toward practical European fusion power plant deployment.
Top Fusion Companies by Funding – October 2025
Fusion energy is attracting unprecedented investment as governments and private backers race to commercialize this game-changing technology. Updated for October 2025, The Fusion Report’s newest ranking of the top fusion companies based on total funding offers a data-driven look at the industry’s key players and financial landscape.
Fusion Energy’s Funding So Far in 2025
Through Q3 2025, global fusion funding is trending up, with nearly $1.7B raised privately outside of China. Major players like Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Helion are leading the charge, while China accelerates public and private investments. U.S. government support has declined, but strong activity in Europe and Asia shows fusion finance remains hot. Get the full breakdown of where the money’s flowing, who’s raising, and what it means for global fusion leadership.
