For most of my working life, fusion was something that happened inside national laboratories. It was funded by governments, measured in decades, and defended — when it needed defending — on the grounds that the physics was worth knowing. I spent those years on ADITYA and on SST-1 at the Institute for Plasma Research, and before that at Saha Institute, on India’s first tokamak. Nobody in that world used the word “market.”
That world has changed, and the Fusion Industry Association’s 2026 survey documents the change with unusual clarity. It is worth reading carefully, and it is worth reading in India.
The FIA’s 2026 report counts 56 private fusion companies worldwide and $14.24 billion in cumulative declared funding. Of that, $4.48 billion arrived in the last twelve months alone — more than any single government’s fusion budget over the same period.
Continue reading “Fusion Has Become an Investment Class : India Now Has to Decide What Part It Wants to Play!”