Google has announced a significant investment in Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a company working to develop nuclear fusion technology. The deal involves buying 200 megawatts of power from Commonwealth’s first commercial fusion plant, equivalent to powering 200,000 average American homes. Google is also investing in a second round of funding for Commonwealth’s demonstration tokamak, aiming to spur development of this crucial machine.
Commonwealth aims to build its first commercial fusion plant in Virginia by the early 2030s, with the company believing it can achieve this timeline. Fusion energy has the potential to provide virtually unlimited clean power and is especially appealing to big tech companies like Google due to its ability to deliver baseload electricity for data centers and AI.
The technology uses massive magnets and molten plasma to force two atoms to merge, creating the energy of the sun. Commonwealth’s demonstration plant in Massachusetts, known as SPARC, has the potential to generate 10 million times more energy than coal or natural gas while producing no planet-warming pollution.
However, the big challenge lies in building a machine powerful and precise enough to get more energy out of the reaction than is put into it. Despite this challenge, fusion energy remains an attractive option for companies like Google seeking clean power solutions.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/30/climate/fusion-energy-google-commonwealth-agreement