Shanghai startup’s ‘Artificial Sun’ achieves major fusion milestone

SHANGHAI: Shanghai-based fusion startup Energy Singularity has achieved a new global record for a commercially constructed nuclear fusion device with its HH70 high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tokamak. This landmark achievement involved sustaining a steady-state, long-pulse plasma current for 1,337 seconds.

Nuclear fusion, often referred to as the “artificial sun,” mimics the sun’s thermonuclear reactions and is considered the ultimate solution to humanity’s energy and carbon emission challenges.

Energy Singularity, founded in 2021, is China’s first private fusion energy company. In June 2024, the company commissioned the world’s first high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tokamak, the HH70. Since then, the device has conducted 5,755 experiments, with the most recent round achieving pulse durations at the thousand-second level.

According to the company, this significant milestone was made possible through the continuous optimization of its AI-based plasma control system.

“This breakthrough is not merely about time; more importantly, it demonstrates that the deep integration of HTS and AI control technologies has reached engineering feasibility, paving the way for the low-cost, high-efficiency construction of future fusion power plants,” said Dong Ge, co-founder of Energy Singularity.

“Our goal is to reduce the levelized cost of electricity from fusion power to that of thermal power, or even lower,” Dong added.

The company announced that the HH70 device, which holds independent intellectual property rights and boasts a localization rate of over 96 percent, serves as a crucial experimental platform. Leveraging this success, the company is now fast-tracking the development of its successor, the HH170, intending to achieve net energy gain from fusion.

Currently, Shanghai is emerging as a global innovation hub for fusion energy, hosting a host of technological pathways, including HTS tokamaks and laser fusion.