Fusion energy has moved from the realm of physics seminars into the center of global power politics. The United States still holds a fragile edge in private fusion investment and innovation, but rivals are racing to turn state-backed strategies into grid-connected plants. If America wants its current advantage to translate into lasting energy leadership, it needs a far more ambitious, coordinated fusion plan than anything on the books today.
That plan has to treat fusion not as a science project but as core infrastructure, on par with shale in the 2000s or semiconductors today. The technology promises vast, clean power and a new industrial base, yet the window to lock in supply chains, standards and markets is closing fast as China and Europe scale up their own programs.
The race is geopolitical, not just scientific
Fusion is no longer a niche research topic; it is emerging as a pillar of national energy and security strategy. In the midst of the wider energy transition, industry leaders describe the fusion sector itself as shifting from basic research to a pre-commercial phase, a change they see as a source of great opportunity for countries that move quickly to support commercial projects. In Washington, that opportunity is increasingly framed through the lens of President Trump’s foreign policy, where the National Security Strategy explicitly ties U.S. power to control over strategic resources and an emphasis on shaping the Western Hemisphere, a doctrine that now implicitly includes advanced energy like fusion as a tool of influence for the United States and its allies under President Trump. In Europe, policymakers are just as blunt: At the European Parliament, senior figures argue that Europe’s energy sovereignty will define its competitiveness for decades and insist that fusion energy is no longer a scientific curiosity but a strategic priority where Europe intends to be among the leaders, a stance that elevates fusion to the same level as gas pipelines or critical minerals in debates over energy sovereignty.
China has drawn even sharper lines between fusion, industrial policy and geopolitical ambition. In congressional testimony, lawmakers have highlighted that the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, is committed to connecting the first fusion-fission hybrid power plant to the electrical grid by 2030, a target that would give Beijing a powerful demonstration of technological prowess and long-term energy security under the Chinese Communist Party. Analysts of China’s broader energy strategy note that at the heart of China’s renewable energy goals lies the commanding hand of the state, which has pursued a model that fuses national strategy with industrial execution, a template now being applied to advanced nuclear and fusion supply chains as part of China’s industrial policy. In this context, fusion is not just about clean electrons; it is about who sets the rules of the next energy system.
America’s lead is real, but it is already eroding
For now, the United States still sits at the center of the private fusion boom. A major international report finds that the US leads the private race with 42 of 77 private fusion companies and 53% of global funding, a concentration of talent and capital that no other country has yet matched according to data on 42, 77, 53%. By 2023, over $6 billion had been invested globally in fusion, with $6+ billion from the private sector and over $270 million from the public sector, a split that underscores how venture-backed firms in the United States and a handful of other markets have driven most of the early momentum while governments have contributed only $270 m in direct support to the emerging $270 million. That private dynamism is visible in corporate deals: Google has signed a major power purchase agreement, or PPA, for 200 megawatts of clean fusion power from Commonwealth Fusion Sys, a 200 m offtake that signals serious demand from big tech for early commercial plants tied to Google’s PPA.
Yet that lead is under direct challenge from state-led competitors. Industry leaders warn that America could lose the race to create energy from fusion as China is dramatically outspending the US in the pursuit, a gap that threatens to shift the center of gravity for future plants and supply chains away from America’s innovators. One detailed assessment finds that China has outspent U.S. fusion efforts nearly threefold over the past three years, making increased federal investment essential to compete on a level playing field internationally as China ramps up. Another funding analysis notes that the US model has been led by a venture-heavy approach while China has relied on a 71.2% state-led approach, a divergence that leaves American firms exposed to policy drift even as The US and China dominate global fusion investment according to US and China. Without a stronger national framework, the current American edge could prove fleeting.
Washington has a roadmap, but not yet a strategy
Federal agencies have begun to sketch out how fusion might move from lab to market, but the pieces still do not add up to a full national plan. The Department of Energy, or DOE, has launched a bold new roadmap aimed at turning the long-held dream of commercial fusion energy into reality, explicitly positioning the effort as a way to secure America’s leadership in energy innovation through a coordinated Department of Energy program. The Energy Department has also released a Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap under a broader initiative titled Unleash Commercial Nuclear Power in the United States, a document that is explicitly framed as a way to restore U.S. energy dominance and accelerate the commercialization of advanced reactors and fusion as part of Energy Department Announces. In parallel, DOE has announced a new decadal fusion energy strategy that lays out the agency’s Bold Decadal Vision and calls for expanded public-private partnerships to accelerate fusion commercialization, a sign that officials understand the need for sustained investment and clear milestones in the DOE Bold Decadal.
The White House has tried to knit these efforts together, but the result still falls short of a whole-of-government strategy. At a White House Summit, the Department of Energy announced that all eight companies in its Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program had successfully concluded detailed negotiations and that cooperative agreements had been signed to commence the Milestone Program, a model that pays private developers for hitting technical goals rather than reimbursing costs in the Milestone Program. A separate initiative from the executive branch has focused on resolving the scientific and technological gaps to a fusion pilot plant, paving the way for commercial fusion deployment and cultivating a robust domestic supply chain, a trio of priorities that show up in recent efforts to accelerate the Resolving the industry. Still, as one recent commentary argued, the U.S. needs a national fusion strategy before our lead in the field evaporates, because China, Europe and the U.K. have been pouring billions into fusion development and now is the time to double down on a coherent plan that links research, regulation and deployment in a single national fusion strategy. Without that, the current patchwork of roadmaps risks being overtaken by more centralized competitors.
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