Nuclear Fusion Progress Infographic (2026)

How close are we to nuclear fusion?

Closer than ever in the lab. On April 7, 2025, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California produced 8.6 megajoules of fusion energy from 2.08 megajoules of laser light, a gain of 4.13. That is the highest fusion gain on record. For nearly 24 years before that, the record belonged to Europe's JET tokamak, which in October 1997 produced 16 megawatts of fusion power at a gain of 0.65, short of breakeven.

Figure 1 shows the record as a staircase. JET's step runs flat across most of the chart. NIF passed it in August 2021 at 0.71, crossed breakeven in December 2022 and has set four more records since. NIF repeated ignition for the 11th time in June 2026, with a gain of about 3.8.

Has nuclear fusion produced net energy?

Yes, but only at the fuel target. On December 5, 2022, NIF's 3.15 MJ output beat the 2.05 MJ of laser energy delivered to the target, which LLNL calls ignition. The gain counts only the laser energy that reaches the target, not the much larger amount of electricity used to fire the lasers, so the facility as a whole still uses more energy than it makes.

LLNL says a target gain approaching 15 would be needed to run a laser test facility with zero net electric demand, more than three times today's record. ITER, the international magnetic fusion project in France, is designed for 500 MW of fusion power from 50 MW of heating, a gain of at least 10.

How much money is invested in fusion energy?

Fusion companies have reported $14.24 billion in funding since 2021, according to the Fusion Industry Association's 2026 survey. A record $4.48 billion of it came in the 12 months to July 2026, 69% more than the year before. Private investors supplied $13.26 billion of the total and governments $980.7 million, so about 93% is private money.

Large rounds drove the jump, including an $863 million raise by Commonwealth Fusion Systems, $518 million by Proxima Fusion and $465 million by Helion Energy. The FIA surveyed 56 companies, up from 23 in 2021. Twenty-eight are based in the United States, including all five that have raised more than $1 billion. The sector reports more than 16,000 employees.

When will fusion power be available?

Most fusion companies say the 2030s. In the FIA's 2026 survey, 16 of 45 companies expect the first fusion plant to deliver commercial electricity in 2031–2035 and 13 more in 2036–2040, so 71% expect it by 2040. Nine picked 2041–2045 and four picked a later date. Six companies already have a site agreement and five have a power purchase agreement or similar commitment.

Public megaprojects run on slower clocks. In July 2024, ITER reset its schedule: deuterium-tritium operations now start in 2039, four years later than the 2016 plan, at an added cost to the ITER Organization of about €5 billion that its members are still reviewing.

What is the longest fusion plasma ever sustained?

1,337 seconds, about 22 minutes. France's WEST tokamak held a hydrogen plasma that long on February 12, 2025, beating the 1,066-second high-confinement plasma China's EAST tokamak had run that January. Power plants will need to run for far longer, and at far higher power: WEST used 2 MW of heating, and its operators plan to raise that to 10 MW for pulses of about 1,000 seconds.

Methodology & caveats

Fusion gain means fusion energy (or power) released divided by the energy (or power) used to heat the fuel. For JET, a magnetic-confinement tokamak, that is fusion power over the heating power injected into the plasma; ITER's article gives 0.65 for JET's 1997 record, while other accounts round it to 0.67. For NIF, a laser facility, it is target gain: fusion yield over laser energy delivered to the target. The two are related but not identical, and neither includes the grid electricity needed to run the facility. JET's record date (October 31, 1997) comes from the shot's entry in the ITPA profile database.

LLNL states the gains for February and April 2025 and describes December 2022 as about 1.5. data.co derived the other NIF gains by dividing LLNL's published yield by its published laser energy: 1.35 MJ ÷ 1.9 MJ (Aug 2021; LLNL's 2021 report rounds the yield to 1.3 MJ), 3.15 ÷ 2.05 (Dec 2022), 3.88 ÷ 2.05 (Jul 2023) and an estimated 5.2 ÷ 2.2 (Feb 2024). Each step lasts until the next record; the chart runs to November 7, 2026.

Funding, company and timeline figures come from the FIA's voluntary survey of private fusion companies, published July 13, 2026. Annual totals cover the 12 months to July. The 2022–2025 values are as printed (rounded to $0.1B) in the 2026 report. The 71% share, the 93% private share and the "6 other countries" row are calculated by data.co from the FIA's counts. Survey timelines are the companies' own expectations. ITER's added cost is the ITER Organization's July 2024 estimate for its own budget; most of ITER is paid for by members' in-kind contributions, so it is not a full project cost. Plasma duration records are not energy records: neither WEST nor EAST burned fusion fuel.