Innovative investments fuel a growing supply chain

In 2024 alone, private fusion companies collectively spent USD 434 million on supply chain procurement, nearly double the previous year’s total, according to a recent report by the Fusion Industry Association (FIA). This explosive growth points to a fast-evolving ecosystem, one that relies on strategic public-private partnerships, innovative funding models and a new breed of niche suppliers, many of whom trace their origins to ITER.

Public/private partnerships help power the fusion economy

For decades, ITER has been the cornerstone of fusion efforts worldwide—and the industrial legacy of the project is now catalyzing new commercial ventures. “Hundreds of companies across Europe have gained valuable expertise through ITER,” said Erik Fernandez, General Manager of Spain’s science industry association INEUSTAR, during the April 2025 ITER Private Sector Fusion Workshop. “They’ve evolved from build-to-print contractors into co-design partners collaborating directly with researchers.”

Building on this theme, Fernandez explained how public funding has de-risked advanced manufacturing and brought coherence to what was once a fragmented ecosystem. These capabilities now form the backbone of a supply chain that is becoming essential not only in Europe but also in the United States and Asia.

Jack Cohen, Director of Supplier Integration at Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), noted during the workshop that CFS will spend 80% of its SPARC tokamak procurement budget this year—much of it going to ITER-qualified suppliers. “That’s a testament to public investment laying the groundwork for private fusion success,” he said.

For some companies, participation in the fusion supply chain has become a business model in its own right. Mohamed Ben Sasi is the Investment Manager at First Light Fusion, a company that was once focused on developing an inertial confinement reactor that has more recently shifted course to become a specialized supplier. “We believe the key to achieving commercial inertial fusion power plants lights in our proprietary amplifier technology,” he told the audience at the workshop.

This pivot has not just allowed First Light to generate near-term revenue, it has also made them indispensable to other fusion ventures. “Our approach is based on a simple principle: energy is relatively cheap, but power is expensive,” he said. “So, rather than building ever-more-powerful drivers, our amplifiers enable better use of the available energy, effectively making inertial fusion more economical.” The company now produces high-precision amplifiers compatible with pulsed power and laser-driven fusion setups—and even supports experimental platforms like Sandia National Laboratories’ Z Machine.

New investment models and careful timing may be the missing ingredients

While some companies are innovating from within, others are being shaped from the outside—particularly by a new generation of investors who see fusion not merely as a scientific moonshot, but as a geopolitical and infrastructural imperative.

Investors present at the ITER acknowledged that they see fusion through a long-term lens. “We looked at several domains—including biotech, AI, and energy,” one such investor explained. “Fusion stood out. It had the largest delta between what’s theoretically possible and what’s actually resourced. That meant the marginal impact of entering the field could be enormous.”

In some cases, this may translate to tranche-based investments. Rather than releasing full capital upfront, investors commit funds in defined stages—each tied to the achievement of specific technical milestones. This model, borrowed from the venture capital world but adapted for deep-tech infrastructure, allows high-net-worth individuals, sovereign funds, and philanthropic institutions to manage risk while maintaining long-term support.

This approach is now spreading beyond private markets to collaboration with government agencies, including the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and the US Department of Energy, to apply tranche logic to public-private funding flows. They have also directed funding to critical infrastructure outside the core reactor such aslike AI-powered materials labs, cyclotron testing facilities, and extreme-environment sensors.

Large investments are being made around the world to fund both types of fusion projects. In China, state-owned Fusion Energy Inc was formed in December 2024 to provide the necessary financial support for projects that aim to build an industrial prototype reactor. Kyoto Fusioneering in Japan and Enable Fusion in Korea similarly aim to bring together the resources necessary to accelerate the commercialization of fusion energy and have received large sums to support their activities.

From the supplier side, the biggest challenge is not talent or technology—it is timing. “Companies are hesitant to invest in specialized capabilities without a guarantee of commercial viability,” said Fernandez. “But if we wait for the first reactor to succeed before building the supply chain, we’ll be too late.”

Whether it is far-sighted investors funding high-risk materials research, private firms creating a business from precision technology or leveraging the lessons of ITER to accelerate tokamak assembly, one thing is clear: no single actor can deliver fusion alone.

Success demands a convergence of vision, capital, and coordination. It demands a supply chain that is agile, pre-qualified, and globally distributed. And it demands investors who are willing to back components as well as core reactors—because in fusion, even an amplifier can change the game.