Managing a project where each member state must contribute components separately is very much like assembling a puzzle —but each country does it on its own schedule. Political drama hasn’t helped either. Switzerland was booted out after EU talks collapsed in 2021, and in 2024, post-Brexit Britain snubbed ITER, choosing to invest $410 million in its own fusion prototype instead. Who says science isn’t political?
While Europe drowns in paperwork, the US and China race ahead with nimble, well-funded private-sector projects. If ITER doesn’t pick up the pace, it risks becoming a monument to good intentions and bad execution. To win the fusion race, Europe must cut the red tape and take a page out of the US’ and China’s playbook.
The US and China: A New Space Race?
News flash: the US and China are ahead in the fusion game. In December of 2022, the United States government demonstrated the first instance of net energy gain in fusion research, but the US really shines in its strong commercial outlook. The startup Helion Energy secured a $2.2B deal with Microsoft to deliver fusion power in just three years, suggesting that the datacenters of the future will be powered by fusion. So, despite the longstanding negative outlook for real fusion energy, someone — particularly computing giant Microsoft — really believes it’s happening.
Across the Pacific, China is similarly making great strides in practical fusion power — largely from massive state funding but increasingly from its private sector as well. Dubbed the “artificial sun”, China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) set a record in January 2025 for maintaining high temperature plasma longer than ever before. Furthermore, satellite imagery taken at the start of 2025 suggests China is constructing a massive laser-ignited fusion research facility. China needs fusion to fuel its power-hungry industry.
A Path for a European Comeback
But Europe doesn’t have to settle for bronze in the fusion race. More than bragging rights are at stake—energy independence is a matter of survival. The war in Ukraine exposed Europe’s reliance on Russian energy, proving that simply switching from a fossil fuel customer to a fusion energy customer isn’t enough. Europe must produce its own energy and do it faster than ITER can deliver.
The EU does have an ITER 2.0 planned to transition from experimental to commercial fusion. But its timeline is glacial—a concept by 2030, an engineering design by 2040, and construction sometime after. While startups like Proxima Fusion and Gauss Fusion offer a glimmer of hope, their funding—well under $100 million—is dwarfed by US fusion investments and the expected billion-dollar price tags of commercial fusion plants. Go big or go home.
This is where the EU must step up and supercharge its fusion sector. Instead of funneling money into government-run exercises in bureaucracy, it should fund private fusion startups in a DARPA-style model, but with billions, not millions. If the EU can pledge $800 billion to defence, surely it can spare a few billion for the biggest energy breakthrough of the century—one that will create the energy superpowers of the future.
After all, investments in an energy-independent Europe are investments in security. If the EU gets serious about fusion, just by tossing in a few crumbs from its defence budget, it can reclaim its role as a leader in international collaboration—and remind skeptical Trumpian Americans why global partnerships matter.
Statement
Europe has the scientific know-how to dominate the future of fusion energy—but its funding model is holding it back. While ITER, Europe’s massive fusion project, struggles with bureaucratic delays and soaring costs, the US and China are surging ahead, fueled by billions in private and state-backed investment. Europe doesn’t have to settle for third place. By shifting to a leaner funding model, channeling billions into private fusion startups, and cutting red tape, the EU can turn fusion from a distant dream into a global game-changer.
