- Investments in the fusion industry increased to over $7.1 billion.
- Government funding increased by 57 percent.
- Timelines for electricity production from fusion in the 2030s remain unchanged.
Increased investments and more jobs
The fusion industry has now attracted over $7.1 billion in investments, according to an annual report from the Fusion Industry Association (FIA). Over $900 million in new funds have been added since last year.
Government funding has increased by 57 percent over the past 12 months to $426 million, showing that governments increasingly see public-private partnerships as central to making commercial fusion a reality.
The figures come from FIA’s report “The Global Fusion Industry in 2024,” which surveyed 45 private fusion companies, up from 43 last year.
USA in clear lead
The United States remains the global leader for commercial fusion with 25 companies in the survey, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and China, all with three companies each. Switzerland is a new player in this year’s report with two fusion companies, while Australia, Canada, France, Israel, New Zealand, and Sweden all have one company each.
Sharp increase in employees
This year has seen a significant increase in the number of employees, with over 4,000 people now working in private fusion companies around the world. This is an increase of 34 percent since 2023 (1,034 more employees) and almost 300 percent since 2021 (3,011 more employees). Nearly half of the employees are engineers (48 percent), a quarter are scientists (25 percent), and a quarter have other roles (27 percent).
The goal is electricity production in the 2030s
89 percent of the companies in the survey expect fusion to deliver electricity to the power grid before the end of the 2030s, and 70 percent of the companies say this milestone will be reached before the end of 2035. These responses have been similar since the first report in 2021, suggesting that the timelines have not shifted.
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