Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) was founded in 2018, as a spin-out from MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center to leverage the decades of fusion research combined with the innovation and speed of the private sector.  Supported by some the world’s leading investors in breakthrough energy technologies, the CFS team is uniquely positioned to deliver the fastest path to commercial fusion energy having assembled a world-class team to design and build fusion machines with the potential to provide limitless, clean, fusion energy to combat climate change.  This team includes experts in magnets, manufacturing, and plasma physics dedicated to the mission of delivering limitless sustainable fusion power to the world.

CFS has successfully developed  High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) magnets and is now building the world’s first net-energy-gain fusion system.  The CFS technology produces significantly stronger magnetic fields in a fusion device called a ‘tokamak’, existing versions of which rely on the scale of the device to attempt net energy.  HTS magnets support a high-field approach that will enable CFS to reach net energy from fusion with a substantially smaller, lower cost device and on a faster timeline. “Our recent announcement on the successful test of the world’s strongest HTS magnet – the culmination of three years of work – unlocked a clear path to fusion power for the first time,” said Bob Mumgaard, Chief Executive Officer, CFS.

This HTS magnet technology will be used in SPARC, under construction in Devens, Massachusetts and on track to demonstrate net energy from fusion by 2025.  SPARC will then pave the way for the first commercially viable fusion power plant called ARC in the early 2030s.

In December 2021, the JIMCO Technology Fund was a major participant in the company’s US$ 1.8 billion Series B funding round, a strategic investment to accelerate the commercialization of fusion energy and so step toward providing the world with limitless, clean and  sustainable power.