Commonwealth Fusion Systems has signed a second power purchase agreement for its planned ARC fusion plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia, with the Italian energy giant Eni. The agreement is worth more than $1 billion, though the specific financial terms aren’t being made public.
The technology, of course, is not yet operational — and much could change for either company in the at least five years before CFS plans to have its ARC plant up and running. At this point, the size of the contract arguably says more about the growing demand for new clean firm power in a moment of unanticipated load growth from data centers, electrification, and onshoring than it does about the readiness of fusion itself.
CFS announced its plans to build a 400-megawatt facility late last year, in partnership with utility Dominion Energy; the utility is at the center of the national load growth conversation, as it supplies power to a concentration of data centers dubbed “Data Center Alley.” The company said last year that it is forecasting roughly 15 gigawatts of data center load by 2040, and it already has contractual support for “virtually all of that.”
However, actually getting the ARC plant operational on CFS’s early-2030s timeline will depend on a huge amount of capital, and for the company to achieve continuous fusion — a milestone that has so far remained out of reach for the industry.
A lab in California managed to break even on energy for fusion ignition in 2022, which was a key step in making fusion a reality. CFS and its peers are now working to demonstrate that the additional step — a reaction that creates more energy than it consumes, and therefore produces virtually unlimited power — is also possible.
CFS has said that its demonstration facility, the SPARC plant in Massachusetts, could begin producing energy sometime after 2026.
Despite the technological hurdle, both investors and other commercial partners have been willing to bet on CFS. The company needs large amounts of capital because CFS plans to independently finance, build, own, and operate the fusion plant. As CCO Rick Needham told Latitude Media in 2024, the process for this plant is “more similar to how an independent power producer would finance and build a large solar wind, or gas power plant, which does not seek cost recovery from customers.”
Eni has been a shareholder since the company’s early days, but the PPA unveiled today marks the first commercial partnership between the companies. Since 2023, Eni’s strategic partnership with CFS has included operational and technological support, stakeholder connections, and shared energy industry methodologies.
The companies didn’t specify how many megawatts Eni’s billion-dollar-plus investment will secure, but half of the power from the 400 MW AC plant has already been spoken for; this comes just three months after CFS signed an offtake agreement with Google for 200 MW. (They did not disclose the financial terms of that deal.)
“This strategic collaboration, with a tangible commitment to the purchase of fusion energy, marks a turning point in which fusion becomes a full industrial opportunity,” said Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi in a press release. “As energy demand grows, Eni supports the development of fusion power as a new energy paradigm capable of producing clean, safe, and virtually inexhaustible energy.”
For more on CFS’ approach to fusion technology, listen to CCO’s Rick Needham’s interview on The Green Blueprint:
This comes less than a month after CFS announced that it secured a $863 million Series B2 round, bringing its total up to $3 billion raised. Eni participated in that round, which was oversubscribed, and brought in new investors including Nvidia’s venture capital arm.
As CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard told reporters on Friday, the Eni deal strengthens the company’s overall financial picture further, potentially enabling them to seek project-level finance as. they move toward actually constructing the plant. He added that the company plans to raise more, though he didn’t specify whether that’s raising venture or more traditional forms of capital.
“We have a very broad, deep capital stack on purpose because we know this takes money. And we’ll continue to raise that money,” Mumgaard said. “It would be a big shame [if] we as humanity don’t get fusion power because we couldn’t figure out how to make the accounting moves.”
