They're fast followers and then they take the lead by dominating the supply chain.
China invests $1-1.5B annually in fusion versus US $800M, with startups like Energy Singularity building tokamaks in record time using advanced superconductor magnets. US tokamaks are aging; the country now depends on allied facilities in Japan, Europe, and UK. China is reportedly copying US designs while rapidly advancing its own technology.
- China invests $1-1.5 billion annually in fusion; the U.S. spends $800 million
- Energy Singularity built a tokamak in three years using advanced superconducting magnets
- U.S. tokamaks are aging; DIII-D is 30 years old; the country now depends on allied facilities
- China's EAST tokamak maintained plasma at 70 million degrees Celsius for over 17 minutes
- American private companies have attracted 80% of global fusion investment ($7 billion in 3-4 years)
China is rapidly closing the gap in nuclear fusion research with higher government spending and faster development timelines, threatening decades of US technological dominance in this clean energy frontier.
In a nondescript building on a Shanghai street, a small company called Energy Singularity is working on something that could reshape the world's energy future: nuclear fusion. The startup built its own tokamak—a complex doughnut-shaped machine that heats hydrogen to extreme temperatures—in just three years, faster than any comparable reactor has ever been constructed. This speed is emblematic of a larger anxiety gripping American fusion researchers and industry leaders: the United States, which pioneered nuclear fusion research in the 1950s and led the field for decades, is losing ground to China.
The concern is not abstract. The Chinese government is spending between $1 billion and $1.5 billion annually on fusion research, according to Jean Paul Allain, director of the Fusion Energy Sciences Office at the U.S. Department of Energy. The Biden administration, by contrast, has allocated roughly $800 million per year. That gap matters not just in raw dollars but in momentum. Energy Singularity has already attracted over $112 million in private investment and achieved a world first: its tokamak is the only one to have used advanced high-temperature superconducting magnets in a plasma experiment. These magnets are more powerful than the copper magnets used in older tokamaks, allowing for smaller machines that can generate as much fusion energy as larger ones while confining plasma more effectively.
The prize driving this competition is almost incomprehensible in scale. A controlled fusion reaction releases roughly four million times more energy than burning coal, oil, or gas—and four times more than nuclear fission, the type of nuclear energy in use today. The country that masters fusion first will gain not just an energy solution but enormous geopolitical influence. While fusion won't arrive in time to combat climate change in this critical decade, it could be the answer to future warming. Energy Singularity plans to build a second-generation tokamak by 2027 to prove its methods are commercially viable, with a third-generation device capable of feeding power to the grid by 2035.
Meanwhile, American tokamaks are aging. The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory has spent a decade modernizing its reactor. The other operational tokamak in the United States, DIII-D, is thirty years old. The country now depends on research facilities in Japan, Europe, and the United Kingdom to advance its fusion work. China, by contrast, is building a $570 million fusion research park called CRAFT in eastern China, expected to open next year. Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association, told CNN bluntly: "We don't have anything like it."
What troubles American industry leaders most is not just China's spending but its methods. Several of China's new or planned tokamaks are essentially copies of American designs using similar components, according to Holland. The state-funded Chinese tokamak BEST, scheduled for completion in 2027, mirrors a design created by Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Massachusetts company working with MIT. Another Chinese private company is building a machine that closely resembles a tokamak designed by the American firm Helion. Both incorporate the same advanced magnets Energy Singularity uses. "There's a long history of China copying U.S. technology," Holland said, pointing to solar panels as an example. "They're fast followers and then they take the lead by dominating the supply chain."
The United States has pursued a different strategy: betting on multiple technological approaches rather than concentrating on tokamaks alone. In late 2022, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California achieved a historic breakthrough, firing nearly 200 lasers at a fuel capsule the size of a peppercorn and generating a net energy gain from fusion for the first time—meaning the reaction produced more energy than was used to heat the capsule. This laser-based approach represents a potential American advantage, though experts caution that the tokamak remains the most studied and physically advanced concept. Melanie Windridge, a plasma physicist and CEO of Fusion Energy Insights, noted that multiple viable approaches to fusion energy may ultimately emerge, with success depending on costs and other factors.
China's tokamak research continues to produce remarkable results. The EAST tokamak in Hefei maintained stable plasma at 70 million degrees Celsius—five times hotter than the sun's core—for more than 17 minutes, a world record that Mikhail Maslov of the UK Atomic Energy Authority called a "major milestone." Sustaining long plasma pulses remains one of the greatest technical challenges for commercializing fusion energy.
The American advantage in private investment remains substantial. Over the past three to four years, the private sector globally has invested $7 billion in fusion, with approximately 80 percent flowing to American companies. This entrepreneurial dynamism could prove decisive. But if China continues spending over $1 billion annually from government coffers, it may soon eclipse American private sector spending. The race that began in the 1950s is entering a new phase, and for the first time in decades, the outcome is genuinely uncertain.
Citações Notáveis
For me, what matters most is not the figure but how quickly it's being done.— Jean Paul Allain, Director of Fusion Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy
We don't have anything like it. There are no modern fusion facilities in U.S. national laboratories.— Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does it matter that China is building tokamaks faster than the U.S.? Isn't speed less important than getting it right?
Speed matters because fusion is a race with real stakes. The first country to make fusion commercially viable doesn't just get clean energy—it gets geopolitical leverage, economic dominance, and the ability to set standards for the technology worldwide. If China reaches it first, they control the supply chain, the patents, the expertise.
But the U.S. has private companies investing heavily. Doesn't that offset China's government spending?
It does for now. American private investment dwarfs China's—80 percent of global private fusion funding goes to U.S. companies. But private money is volatile and outcome-dependent. Government funding is patient and sustained. If China keeps spending $1.5 billion a year while the U.S. spends $800 million, eventually that gap compounds.
Energy Singularity used advanced magnets that no one else has used in a tokamak before. How did a startup do that?
They had capital, ambition, and access to technology that was developed elsewhere but not yet deployed in this way. That's the pattern Holland described—China doesn't invent from scratch. It takes proven concepts, improves them, and scales them faster. The magnets came from existing research. Energy Singularity just had the resources and will to integrate them first.
Is the American laser approach a real alternative, or is that just what people say to feel better about falling behind?
It's a real alternative, but tokamaks are further along. The laser breakthrough at Lawrence Livermore was historic, but it's one experiment. Tokamaks have been studied for seventy years. Most private companies are betting on tokamaks because the physics is better understood. The U.S. is hedging its bets, which is smart, but it also means resources are spread thinner.
What happens if China gets there first?
Then Shanghai doesn't just light up with celebration. China becomes the world's energy superpower. Every country that needs fusion technology has to deal with Beijing. The geopolitical implications dwarf the energy question.