Something seismic is happening in the global energy field. The Trump administration fundamentally restructured American energy policy. Offices overseeing renewable energy got sidelined. Nuclear fusion jumped to the top tier of national priorities. At the same time, Trump Media announced a merger with a private fusion company. The United States is openly targeting a grid-connected fusion reactor by the late 2030s.
Washington is not alone. Japan's new prime minister spoke about fusion in her first policy address. The UK wrote a regulatory framework for fusion facilities. The European Union is aligning capital and industrial policy around a future fusion market. China is aggressively expanding state-backed fusion programs.
Why is everyone obsessed with nuclear fusion?
Why the obsession? Fusion could be the energy source that ends the age of fossil fuels while solving the solar-and-wind problem: unreliability. When the sun doesn't shine, and the wind doesn't blow, these sources fail. Fusion doesn't have that weakness. It mimics the process that powers the sun. If you can scale it, you've essentially solved humanity's energy problem for centuries.
The science already proved itself. In 2022, the National Ignition Facility in California achieved what was once thought impossible: a fusion reaction that released more energy than was put into it. That settled the debate about feasibility. Now the challenge is purely industrial. Can you build reactors that run continuously, survive extreme conditions, and make economic sense? That's where things get interesting.
More than 60 private fusion companies are chasing this goal, backed by billions in venture capital. China is moving faster than anyone else. Japan, South Korea, and the UAE are throwing serious money at it. Europe is mobilizing. The Americans are betting that technological leadership means controlling the entire ecosystem: supply chains, materials, manufacturing capacity, software, diagnostics.
Here's where Israel enters the picture. It's holding a few critical keys to help crack this challenge.
The US Department of Energy identified specific bottlenecks that need solving. Israel doesn't just have some of these solutions. It has several of the exact ones Washington flagged as essential.
Take tungsten and ceramic components that need to withstand plasma temperatures inside a fusion reactor. These are among the hardest materials to manufacture with precision. Israeli companies like Tritone and XJet have already cracked 3D-printing high-density tungsten components at the required scale. They're among the few capable globally. The Soreq Nuclear Research Center has a Fusion Prototypical Neutron Source that, with minimal adaptation, could serve as a critical testing facility.
Then there's artificial intelligence and advanced computing. These are crucial for predicting plasma instabilities and running massive simulations. Israel is a global leader in advanced computing, radiation-hardened electronics, optical diagnostics, high-power lasers, and control systems. The infrastructure already exists.
Israel even has a homegrown company, nT-Tao, developing core fusion reactor technology itself.
This isn't a random collection of strengths. It's a pattern. Israel sits precisely at the technological chokepoints the Americans identified as limiting factors in the fusion race.
Yet Israel is hesitating. The window is narrow. Washington is moving fast. Beijing is moving faster. Europe isn't waiting around. Every month of delay is a month competitors use to strengthen their position.
Energy independence has always been a stated Israeli national interest. Fusion offers that plus a genuine economic opportunity to supply critical technology to the coming fusion era. But opportunity isn't destiny. It requires a national decision: sustained government funding, adaptive regulation that doesn't kill innovation, and real cooperation between academia and industry.
Israel can be a meaningful player in the fusion revolution. But only if it moves now. The world isn't waiting.
The writer is the former senior VP of strategy and innovation of Israeli Electric Company, currently an adviser promoting deep-tech technologies.