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Inside the Quest to Make Fusion Energy a Reality

Start-ups say we’re closer than ever to near-limitless, zero-carbon energy from fusion. When will we get there?

Soon after, they will start generating electricity for factories, data centers, steel mills and more, helping humanity take a decisive step away from fossil fuels, away from global warming and air pollution, away from powering our lives by setting tiny fires in engines and boilers and furnaces. Big-name investors including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Vinod Khosla and Sam Altman have staked hundreds of millions of dollars on this, fusion’s potential Kitty Hawk moment: the one that shows that the limits of our species’s mastery have once again been catapulted forward. They are signing presale deals with customers, developing supply chains, cultivating a work force, talking with regulators — all the elements that will be needed to make fusion an affordable, practical power source, not just a science experiment.

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