Global Suppliers Bet on Nuclear Fusion Future: Superconductors, Gyrotrons May Face Huge Gap

There are signs that suppliers in the global nuclear fusion industry are expanding capacity, betting on the construction race of reactors and power plants—believing this will create a profitable market even before the technology delivers abundant electricity.

Consulting firm Helixos estimates that by 2040, annual construction spending on commercial nuclear fusion plants will reach $73.1 billion, more than three times the estimated $20 billion value of electricity they generate at that time.

Companies like Japan's Fujikura and US-based engineering group Aecom are betting that their efforts to support the fusion industry will prove profitable for years ahead of meaningful electricity sales.

Helixos co-founder Alex Borovskis said the first major commercial opportunity may come from building new plants that are "still relatively expensive," as fusion remains in an "early construction phase."

Large sums are flowing into fusion startups as governments and hyperscale cloud companies—like Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft building data centers—seek clean energy to power high-energy AI.

Fusion research teams aim to commercialize the technology, which simulates the sun's energy by forcing atomic nuclei together in superheated plasma. However, although supporters are excited about its zero-carbon emissions and lack of long-lived nuclear waste, fusion developers have struggled to turn experimental potential into sustained electricity production.

Currently, mainstream nuclear power plants use fission, splitting heavy atomic nuclei like uranium and plutonium to release huge energy. Fusion combines light atomic nuclei like deuterium and tritium into heavier ones, also potentially releasing huge energy. However, fusion requires extreme temperatures and pressures (e.g., hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius) to overcome the repulsion between nuclei, making conditions extremely demanding.

One engineering executive said some private companies are setting "extremely ambitious" targets to "excite the market," predicting many will exit the race before commercialization is achieved.

But companies including Tokyo-based Fujikura are not deterred. The company is investing about $72 million to triple capacity of superconducting magnet materials by 2027 and double it again by spring 2028, to meet growing demand from private fusion companies.

This material is used to make next-generation superconductors for the strong magnetic fields needed to confine superheated plasma.

Fujikura General Manager Masanori Daibo said, "Demand for this material from fusion is actually one to two orders of magnitude higher than other uses." He added that future demand will mainly come from fusion.

Dallas-based Aecom has invested in Type One Energy—a startup backed by Bill Gates, targeting commercial fusion plants in the US and UK by the mid-2030s.

Aecom Chairman and CEO Troy Rudd said fusion energy is actually "only 5 to 10 years away" from commercial deployment, not "always 20 years away"—a reference to the well-known industry joke.

"There is indeed substantial economic investment going on," he said. "This is by no means a losing proposition for us."

One engineering company executive said some supplier investments are already generating "substantial" revenue, and his company has won about $250 million in orders.

A joint venture led by Kier Infrastructure (based in Salford, northern England) and French nuclear engineering firm Nuvia won an initial £200 million contract in March for the UK's national fusion prototype plant. The project, called "Step," could ultimately cost £20 billion, targeting power to the grid by 2040 to prove commercial viability.

Ross MacKenzie, Managing Director of Natural Resources at the UK company, said fusion energy has "great development prospects" and the company wants to be part of the "discussion." "As (fusion technology) evolves in the future... it may take one of several different paths," MacKenzie added. "Our current view of what the future holds is likely wrong."

This boom also highlights the fragility of the fusion industry's supply chain. John Radelston of Ki Consultancy noted it is "small, specialized, growing fast, and currently bottlenecked."

This means companies may not be ready for a sudden flood of orders. The superconducting materials sector, in particular, is dominated by a few Japanese and Chinese manufacturers, and uncertainty about future demand may deter smaller suppliers from investing.

Japan's fusion engineering company Kyoto Fusioneering said it is trying to persuade its suppliers to expand production of components like gyrotrons—devices used to heat plasma.

Sales director Yuhei Nozoe said he even arranges drinking sessions outside regular meetings to convince these companies to expand capacity. Many are reluctant to bet on demand that may take decades to materialize and could be further delayed.

Nozoe said he has been communicating with "corporate CEOs, government officials, and people at all levels" to convey that fusion equipment demand will come. "For private companies, 10 years is beyond mid-term planning and becomes long-term planning," he added. "So whether to invest now for that time frame is a very difficult discussion."