Nuclear fusion companies have this year declared over $4.7bn of private funding to date, plus an additional $117m in grants and other funding from governments, more than doubling the industry’s entire historic investment in a single year.

The funding represents an increase of $2.83bn over the amount of funding reported by the fusion industry in 2021, according to a report by the Fusion Industry Association (FIA).

The report says the funding included notable investments including $1.8bn into Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), $500m into Helion Energy and several important ones over $100m.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems is an American company founded in 2018 aiming to build a compact fusion power plant. Helion Energy, also US-based, is developing, building and testing fusion systems and subsystems. Both companies are members of the FIA.