Global investment in fusion energy hit a record of $4.8 billion in the past 12 months, bringing total investments since 2021 above $14.2 billion. Last year’s total investment in 45 private companies, said Reuters, was 69% higher than in the previous 12 months. At least 17 fusion companies have raised at least $100 million.

The investment surge, says Reuters, signals growing confidence that fusion can augment the electric grid in the 2030s. Quantum computing and artificial intelligence are among the reasons for the surge in faith that “the Holy Grail” is closer than ever.

Researchers recently demonstrated the first quantum computer calculations of FLiBe, a molten salt made from fluorine, lithium, and beryllium that is a leading candidate material for breeding and extracting tritium inside fusion reactors.

Experts from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Cleveland Clinic, and IBM successfully calculated nine different molecular configurations of FLiBe – an important step toward designing materials capable of producing the fusion fuel tritium.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a critical enabler for fusion funding, as AI data centers gobble up electricity in unprecedented amounts. Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants are heavy investors in fusion.

AI is also being deployed to tackle four major challenges: designing materials that can withstand extreme neutron flux; stabilizing super-hot plasma (100 million °C), handling extreme thermal loads (heat flux), and maximizing energy output (fuel cycle optimization).

AI is simulating complex plasma physics, discovering novel materials and control strategies, integrating with real-time hardware to improve stability and efficiency, and enabling digital twins and immersive modeling for design and troubleshooting – all at speeds previously unthinkable.

In a partnership with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Google DeepMind is using deep reinforcement learning to stabilize plasma shapes in tokamaks and to develop TORAX – a fast, differentiable plasma simulator – to optimize performance and control strategies. Microsoft is using generative AI for molecular design and AI emulators for rapid material – saving years of trial-and-error.

AI and quantum computing have augmented the response to President Trump’s call to restore the United States as the world leader in nuclear energy. The Department of Energy and private investors now believe that fusion can begin supplying electricity to the national grid – and to stand-alone facilities – in the next decade.

Just last month, the DOE released a finalized Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap – a national strategy to accelerate the development and commercialization of fusion energy on the most rapid, responsible timeline in history. The roadmap – informed by at least 800 scientists and engineers, 15 private companies, 10 national laboratories, and 70 universities – identifies critical science and technology gaps that the DOE, industry, universities, and national laboratories need to close to enable fusion to help satisfy America’s energy appetite.

The unified strategy, to be implemented via the DOE’s newly established Office of Fusion, is built around three primary drivers: building critical infrastructure to close fusion materials and technology gaps; innovating through advanced research, high-performance computing, and AI; and growing the U.S. fusion ecosystem through public-private partnerships, supply chain development, workforce growth, and commercialization pathways.

The inflow of money to fusion companies affirms that the strategy has broad support.

A sizable chunk has gone to Google-backed TAE Technologies, which recently underwent a reverse merger with Trump Media & Technology Group, led by Trump ally Devin Nunez. Trump Media agreed to provide up to $200 million in cash to TAE at signing and $100 million more upon initial filing.

TAE Technologies is primarily focused on advancing aneutronic fusion power, which produces minimal radioactive waste. The technology utilizes a field-reversed configuration to optimize plasma confinement and stability. The company, which had raised $1.79 billion before the merger, plans to pick a site by yearend and create a commercially viable fusion reactor by 2030.

Jeff Bezos-backed General Fusion on July 13 became the first publicly listed fusion power company, beating TAE Technologies by several months. On its first day, the stock went up sharply. A recent merger with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III brought much-needed cash to the company, which had raised over $600 million from private investors since 2002.

General Fusion relies on magnetized target fusion, which uses magnetic fields to create magnetized plasma inside a chamber lined with liquid lithium. The company hopes to turn on its first power plant “by approximately 2035.”

Commonwealth Fusion Systems, spun out of MIT, is developing a process that fuses hydrogen nuclei using high-temperature superconducting magnets. The firm, which has raised nearly $3 billion from investors that include Google and Nvidia, hopes to turn on its SPARC tokamak fusion energy machine in 2027. Google has already agreed to purchase half of the output from the Arc, a 400 MW commercial power plant CFS wants to build in Virginia.

Microsoft will be the first customer for Helion’s field-reversed configuration reactor, in which magnets surround an hourglass-shaped reaction chamber. Helion, which has raised $1.5 billion (and is valued at $15.5 billion), plans to produce electricity from its reactor in 2028. Investors include Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, and BlackRock.

Helion’s Polaris reactor is more like a battery than a traditional power plant. There is no heat, no steam, no turbine, all of which leak energy. Essentially, a 60-foot tube slams two plasma rings together at a million miles per hour and the recoil is harvested as electricity. Helion says it can recover electricity from each pulse at +95% efficiency. If the technology works, it may have the inside track in the fusion race.

Because the NRC in 2023 decided that fusion machines have more in common with particle accelerators than with fission reactors, fusion reactors are not impeded by decade-long federal reactor reviews. Last month, Helion obtained state Radioactive Materials and Radioactive Air Emissions licenses, making the firm the first fusion power facility to have all its licenses in hand. Polaris is also the first privately funded fusion machine to run on deuterium-tritium fuel.

It’s not just American fusion companies that are raking in cash.

Google just backed Germany-based Proxima Fusion with $468 million. The firm, which hopes to build Europe’s first commercial fusion power plant, has reached $2.7 billion in valuation. Proxima is developing stellarator technology and hopes to have its fusion demonstrator – a proof-of-concept precursor to a commercial power plant – up and running in the early 2030s.

First Light Fusion, spun out of the University of Oxford, has spent less than £45 million to achieve fusion by firing a projectile at a target using a two-stage gun. First Light wants to partner with existing power producers to develop a pilot plant in the 2030s that would produce about 150 MW of electricity and cost less than $1 billion.

Fusion is no longer “30 years away,” we are told. But who will win the race?

Investors today are betting on very different fusion technologies, but with construction and operational costs potentially varying widely, the companies that get to energy production first may – or may not – be the ultimate winners. Betamax preceded VHS and had superior quality, but VHS was cheaper and better served the movie-watching public.