The Special Competitive Studies Project’s (SCSP) President, Ylli Bajraktari, and Associate Director for Fusion, Nicholas Furst, reflect on the United States’ role in the global fusion space and stress that international collaboration and co-ordination are crucial for commercial fusion energy.
The global race for fusion energy began in December 2022, when researchers at the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved ignition for the first time. That experiment, which released more energy than was put into the target, proved that an energy-positive fusion reaction was no longer an abstraction confined to theory or simulation. Indeed, the implications extended far beyond science.
The first nation to achieve commercial fusion energy will gain a concrete advantage in energy security, industrial competitiveness, and geopolitical influence. For the US, that prospect represents both a monumental opportunity and a mounting challenge. China has already moved decisively, channelling resources into fusion infrastructure, talent pipelines, and supply chains. The US, while bursting with innovation, private investment, and scientific know-how, remains hampered by misaligned budgets and ageing public facilities.
If the US hopes to maintain its edge, it must leverage the strengths of its allies, not least the United Kingdom. Together, they can build a transatlantic fusion partnership capable of outpacing competitors, accelerating deployment, and defining the rules of the emerging fusion economy.
The stakes
The importance of fusion as a potential source of abundant, dispatchable, and clean energy is indisputable. The first nation to achieve it will have the opportunity to reap tremendous profits, reshape energy markets, and secure its energy independence. Critics will argue that it is, and always will be, a technology 20 years away, but there are compelling reasons to believe that it is now within reach. Recent advances in plasma physics, artificial intelligence (AI), and key enabling technologies (such as high-temperature superconducting magnets), coupled with unprecedented investment from the private sector, have precipitated the industry’s explosive growth and persuaded many countries to expand the budgets and shorten the timelines of their fusion programmes.
China is no exception. For evidence of its ambitions, look no further than what it is willing to spend. The bipartisan Commission on the Scaling of Fusion Energy has revealed that China has mobilised upwards of $6.5bn for fusion energy since the NIF achieved ignition, roughly three times as much money as the US Government has spent on its Fusion Energy Sciences Program in the same amount of time. This follows a pattern of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) co-ordinating its economy to crowd out competition in critical and emerging technology markets.
China’s strategic advantage
The battery electric vehicle (BEV) industry offers perhaps the best example of how state intervention can chill market competition. The CCP invested a total of $230.9bn in its BEV industry between 2009 and 2023, with $25bn going to research and development (R&D) programmes. This has created shockwaves: Chinese firms have sold well over 80% of all BEVs to the domestic market each year over the past decade. In 2025, Chinese BEV exports are projected to surpass the US’ for the second year in a row – this time by over 200,000 vehicles. Also this year, China outsold the US in 91 countries and territories by a wide margin, whereas the US could only secure a modest lead in 29.
While China is not yet making investments of this scale in fusion, the warning signs are flashing. Recent progress across several prominent infrastructure projects shows that Beijing is serious about closing key scientific and technological gaps inhibiting the technology’s commercialisation. Once it succeeds, China will be able to use its economic incentives and industrial might to dominate the market, as it has done not only with BEVs, but also with solar panels, wind turbines, and fission reactors.
Despite flourishing private innovation, the US must contend with a lack of public capacity to support the high-risk, capital-intensive research needed to bring fusion to market. Decades of technological advancements have reduced the US’ public R&D infrastructure to legacy status, and critical test facilities – which China is actively building – are prohibitively expensive for any one fusion company to fund. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognises the problem this poses to the ecosystem, and recently put forward a strategy to “deliver the public infrastructure” to enable the industry’s “scale-up in the 2030s.” But, amid government cuts to science budgets, progress toward closing these gaps on a relevant timeline is hardly guaranteed if America goes it alone.
A commercialisation-focused fusion partnership
The case for collaboration is clear. The US offers deep scientific expertise, liquid capital markets, and a robust startup ecosystem; the UK is home to key R&D facilities and a forward-looking regulatory regime. Together, they can form a partnership greater than the sum of its parts. There is ample room to co-ordinate fusion R&D, talent exchanges, and regulatory harmonisation, to name a few priorities.
The DOE has noted the importance of having access to the UK’s blanket and fuel cycle R&D facilities in the near future. Both governments have also recognised joint opportunities to conduct AI-enabled science for fusion energy. Recent partnerships between researchers and companies in the AI stack – such as those between the DOE and AMD, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Microsoft, and Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Google DeepMind – are poised to supercharge innovation in digital twins, plasma control, and device performance.
Equally important is a shared belief in the power of private enterprise. The UK distinguished itself as a trailblazer with its decision to regulate fusion under a separate framework than fission in 2023; the US followed suit shortly thereafter. Building on this progress, the US–UK Technology Prosperity Deal explicitly calls for collaborating on “pro-innovation policy and regulation” to cultivate a global fusion market.
Policymakers have an opportunity to capitalise on this momentum. In particular, they should look to parlay the US–Japan and US–Korea Technology Prosperity Deals into a broader scientific and industrial coalition, one that builds on the UK’s recent memorandum of cooperation with Japan on fusion energy and prioritises mutual opportunities for fusion-relevant foreign direct investment.
Competition through collaboration
The British Chargé D’Affaires to the United States put it well when he said that fusion is no longer a question of “energy policy” but “geostrategic policy.” Though China’s edge comes from scale and centralisation, ours can come from research co-operation and private sector innovation. A jointly led coalition, supported by each partner’s public programmes and private innovation, can at once pioneer plasma physics and power plant engineering while setting international standards to enable government and industry to move in lockstep. Co-ordination will allow countries to de-risk R&D, demonstration, and deployment through cutting-edge research that reduces technological uncertainty and unlocks new efficiencies.
The fusion race will be won by those who can combine scientific excellence and industrial capacity. By building an allied fusion ecosystem anchored in openness, innovation, and trust, Washington and London can hasten the arrival of commercial fusion energy and define the global standards for its future use.
Please note, this article will also appear in the 24th edition of our quarterly publication.
