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Google Signs 200 MW Fusion Offtake and Makes Follow-On CFS Investment

By supporting CFS’s SPARC demonstration reactor, the funding boost highlights tech sector’s search for firm clean energy.

Image
A person works on the cryostat base of the fusion reactor inside the tokamak hall at Commonwealth Fusion Systems in Devens, Massachusetts, on April 10. A full-sized image of the tokamak is superimposed onto the wall.
Inside the Devens, Massachusetts, facility where Commonwealth Fusion Systems is making the powerful magnets that will be used in the nuclear fusion energy process. The company plans to build its first power plant in Virginia.

Overview

  • Google formalized a 200 MW power purchase agreement with Commonwealth Fusion Systems for output from its planned ARC fusion plant in Virginia, marking the first corporate offtake deal for fusion energy.
  • The agreement coincides with Google’s second capital investment in CFS, a funding round comparable to its $1.8 billion Series B in 2021, to accelerate R&D on the SPARC demonstration reactor near Boston.
  • CFS aims to complete its SPARC reactor by 2026 and bring the 400 MW ARC commercial plant online in the early 2030s near Richmond, Virginia, pending scientific and engineering milestones.
  • The deal underlines big tech’s strategy to secure long-term, carbon-free baseload power for its AI-driven data centers as electricity demand rises globally.
  • Fusion power remains unproven at scale, with no company yet demonstrating sustained net-positive energy or long-term reliability in a commercial setting.