Singapore emerging as potential regional leader in global fusion energy race

SINGAPORE – In little more than a decade, Asia could have power plants harnessing the same nuclear process that generates energy in the sun and stars – a clean, almost limitless source of energy – helping to meet surging demand for electricity and boost energy security.

The technology could usher in an energy revolution by accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels towards an energy that is not tied to geography or volatile fuel markets.

And Singapore could play a key role in this global fusion energy revolution and potentially become an early adopter, according to the chief executive of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a US firm that is the world’s largest commercial fusion energy company.

“We think Singapore can really anchor fusion in the region,” said Dr Bob Mumgaard on May 20 on the sidelines of Ecosperity Week 2026 – Temasek’s flagship sustainability summit – held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre. He pointed to Singapore’s strong research ecosystem, industrial high-tech community, strong regulatory and investment environment, and its ability to develop and put in place long-term development plans.

“Singapore is a model system for what a future fusion-powered urban society could look like,” he told The Straits Times after signing a collaborative research agreement with A*STAR at Ecosperity.

Besides investing in fusion energy firms and materials science, Singapore is also focusing on plasma computer modelling, an essential tool for simulating the behaviour of super-hot plasma in fusion reactors. This helps operators predict instabilities and ensure plasma stability during operation.

Fusion energy technology has evolved rapidly in recent years, driven in large part by growing demand for electricity. Fuelling that demand is the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, data centres, electric vehicles, buildings and industry. Nuclear fusion power as well as renewable energy and battery storage are regarded as key technologies to plug the power gap.

Global electricity demand has more than doubled since 2000, said energy research outfit BloombergNEF, in a report released on May 19. Based on its projections of how the energy system is most likely to evolve over the next decade and through 2050, demand could rise a further 29 per cent by 2035 and 69 per cent by 2050.

In a sign of the challenge, Canada on May 14 unveiled a C$1 trillion (S$930 billion) strategy to double its electricity grid capacity by 2050, citing rapidly increasing power demand and the need for energy security.

The global hunger for energy has driven billions of dollars of private and government funds into fusion energy research and development. There are now over 50 fusion start-ups globally, more than half of them in the US, but nations such as China are catching up quickly.

There is a race among nations, including China, Japan, the US, Britain and France, to be first to develop commercial fusion power plants by the 2030s or early 2040s.

CFS, whose investors include Temasek, Google and Nvidia, believes its US$1 billion (S$1.28 billion) test-bed SPARC reactor under construction in Massachusetts will reach a key milestone in 2027 by generating far more energy than it consumes, a critical step towards a commercial power plant.

Harnessing fusion energy involves machines that can withstand temperatures of 100 million deg C or more and immense pressures for long periods.

The idea is to create self-sustaining fusion reactions within a super-hot plasma and capture the heat to generate electricity.

It differs from the fission process in big nuclear power plants, which involves splitting atoms and releasing large amounts of radiation. By contrast, fusion does not produce long-term radioactive waste and is not at risk of meltdowns.

CFS believes its technology puts the company in the lead and it has attracted nearly US$3 billion in funding. But it faces competition from China and start-ups in the US and elsewhere.

The company also needs to overcome technical challenges to achieve commercial and affordable fusion power. These include managing the extreme heat, developing materials strong enough to withstand the intense bombardment from neutron particles produced by the fusion reactions, and harvesting tritium fuel to sustain the plasma.

The firm plans to quickly apply the lessons learnt from the SPARC reactor and start building its ARC commercial power plant in Virginia, with completion in the early 2030s. Google has already signed a deal to buy half the plant’s electricity. The longer-term business model is to quickly scale and build ARC reactors in the US and globally.

A key part of the plan is to develop a global supply chain, currently involving 30 nations including Singapore, Japan and South Korea – but not China.

Still, Dr Mumgaard says it is a positive sign that China is on a similar fusion development path as CFS.

“It’s very confirmatory that the technical path that we’re on is not a technical path that is really in dispute as feasible.”

The US wants to win the race, said Dr Mumgaard, who was appointed to President Donald Trump’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in March, in a sign of the administration’s positioning of fusion energy as a national priority.

“They want to win in AI, they want to win in energy,” he added.

The Trump administration has taken, or has announced plans to take, stakes in companies it considers essential.

Asked whether the administration might take a stake in CFS, Dr Mumgaard said: “Not in any way that is really concrete, but they really need to move from wanting to win to actually putting in place the conditions for winning.”

This would include boosting research and development budgets and helping finance the first fusion power plants.

“That really is what would accelerate things,” he said.