World Fusion Outlook: IAEA Report Examines Funding, AI and Future Electricity

The IAEA Fusion Facility Database now records 174 operating, under-construction and planned facilities worldwide, illustrating the breadth of activity across the sector.

Fusion energy is moving towards industrial development, with record private investment, expanding supply chains and more governments including the technology in their energy strategies. The fourth edition of the IAEA World Fusion Outlook examines this transition and the financial, technological and regulatory conditions needed to support it. Launched today in Vienna at the Third High-level Meeting of the IAEA World Fusion Energy Group, the report considers how fusion could contribute to future electricity systems.

Experimental machines are becoming more integrated facilities, and power plant concepts are developing into industrial programmes that require manufacturing capacity and reliable suppliers. The Outlook examines financing for the journey from prototypes to demonstration facilities and first-of-a-kind plants, alongside regulatory approaches emerging worldwide. Contributions from FusionX, Google DeepMind and EUROfusion explore investment requirements, artificial intelligence and possible roles for fusion in the energy mix.

The IAEA Fusion Facility Database now records 174 operating, under-construction and planned facilities worldwide, illustrating the breadth of activity across the sector. Privately funded facilities have tripled in number since 2021, reflecting growing commercial participation in fusion development. The Outlook features 26 planned fusion power plants, with announced electricity-generation targets ranging from the early 2030s to the 2050s.

Record investment brings larger financing needs into focus

Private fusion companies have raised US$21.9 billion in committed capital, with more than 90 per cent secured during the past five years. New funding reached a record US$4.5 billion in the 12 months leading to July 2026, and annual investment could reach US$7.6 billion in 2026 if the current pace continues. Some companies are preparing to enter public markets, expanding the financing options under consideration as projects move towards commercial development.

FusionX estimates that another US$80 billion in private capital could be needed over the next 20 years for the industry to reach commercialization. Drawing on 92 private companies and bottom-up investment modelling, its analysis examines possible consolidation, financing timelines for leading developers' first commercial plants, and the need for different investment sources and structures. Private fusion companies spent more than US$530 million with suppliers in 2025, revealing growing industrial activity and emerging gaps in manufacturing capacity and supply chains.

Artificial intelligence needs accessible data to support progress

Predicting and controlling complex plasmas remains demanding, with experiments concentrated at relatively few leading facilities and advanced simulations sometimes taking weeks or months. Google DeepMind's contribution examines how AI can accelerate simulations, improve experiments and real-time machine control, and make experimental data more useful. Its analysis considers AI's role in developing enabling technologies, including advanced materials needed for future fusion systems.

Much of the data produced by fusion research remains difficult to access, combine and apply to AI, limiting opportunities to use these tools effectively. International initiatives such as the IAEA Fusion Data Lake are working to address those barriers and improve the foundations for AI applications. The chapter explains why usable data could prove as important to progress as improvements in AI itself.

Fusion's electricity contribution depends on the ability to scale

A EUROfusion study adapted for the Outlook explores how availability dates, capital costs, deployment rates and renewable energy integration could shape fusion's future contribution. Depending on those assumptions, fusion could provide a few per cent or as much as 15–20 per cent of global electricity generation by the end of the century. These scenarios examine possible outcomes rather than predict an arrival date, with deployment speed and scale carrying greater long-term importance than the first commercial plant's opening.

Experimental facilities continue to improve plasma performance, technologies and operating capabilities, and the report states that ITER is progressing ahead of its 2024 baseline schedule. Countries are adapting existing regulations or developing fusion-specific provisions to address the characteristics and risks of future facilities. EUROfusion emphasizes that making the technology available is one part of the task, because the capacity to build, operate and expand power plants will determine the scale of fusion's eventual contribution.