How is Google Backing Fusion Power For Future Data Centres?

Fusion energy – the same force that powers the sun – might soon power Google’s data centres. 

The company signs the first-ever corporate fusion power deal and doubles down on a second investment in Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), the Massachusetts-based firm aiming to bring fusion out of the lab and onto the electricity grid. 

For Google, this isn’t just about futuristic power sources. It’s about preparing for the next wave of clean energy needed to run data-heavy services, from AI to cloud computing.

“Commercialising fusion is immensely challenging and success is not guaranteed,” says Michael Terrell, Google’s Head of Advanced Energy. “But if it works, it could change the world.”

How fusion power works and why it matters

Fusion power is science fact, but unleashing the energy from the same process that powers the sun has felt closer to science fiction.

It’s the reaction that fuels the stars: when light atomic nuclei are heated beyond 100 million degrees Celsius, they form plasma. In that extreme state, nuclei fuse and release enormous amounts of energy. That energy can be captured to generate electricity without producing carbon emissions.

“Imagine a world powered by the same energy that fuels the sun and the stars,” says Michael in a blog post on Google's website. “Fusion holds huge potential as an energy source of the future: it’s clean, abundant and inherently safe and it can be built just about anywhere.”

Unlike nuclear fission – the process used in current nuclear power stations – fusion doesn’t rely on radioactive fuel that creates long-lived waste. That makes it a cleaner alternative, though technically harder to achieve. Creating the conditions for fusion on Earth is tough. That’s where companies like CFS come in.

CFS is building a compact fusion reactor called SPARC using tokamak design. A tokamak is a device shaped like a doughnut, which uses powerful superconducting magnets to contain the high-temperature plasma needed for fusion. CFS’s version uses high-temperature superconducting magnets, which allow for a smaller and more manageable reactor.

Michael says: “We’re excited about CFS’s technology because their magnet breakthroughs enable a more compact and commercially viable tokamak design.

“This is the core innovation in their SPARC demonstration machine, currently being assembled in Massachusetts.”

Michael says the approach “represents one of the most promising paths to bringing fusion energy out of the lab and onto the grid”. 

SPARC is a test bed for CFS’s eventual commercial plant, named ARC, which is being developed in Virginia. It’s ARC that Google wants to tap for power.

Google’s fusion purchase and future energy plan

Google has signed an agreement to purchase 200 MW of fusion energy from CFS’s ARC plant once it’s operational. That’s a forward-looking move, given no private fusion company has yet delivered a net energy positive result – where a fusion reaction generates more energy than it consumes.

Still, Michael says the direction of progress is promising: “We hope our offtake agreement for CFS’s ARC will add momentum to these efforts and as part of our agreement we have the option to purchase power from future plants.”

Google has also made a second capital investment in CFS. The move builds on an earlier 2021 investment in the SPARC project and reflects Google’s strategy of supporting clean technologies early on, to help them scale.

“Scaling any type of new technology requires taking some bold steps,” says Michael. “First-of-a-kind power plants are no different.”

While fusion remains years away from commercial reality, deals like this one are meant to accelerate timelines and help solve engineering hurdles that still block large-scale adoption.

Fusion fits into Google’s clean data centre strategy

The CFS partnership is part of a broader clean energy approach at Google. Since 2010 the company has secured more than 22 GW of clean electricity, spanning solar, wind, nuclear and geothermal. These purchases haven’t just reduced the company’s emissions – they’ve helped mature the technologies involved.

One area seeing direct benefit is Google’s own data centres. 

As of 2025, data centre-related emissions are down by 12%. That’s a key goal for the tech firm, which operates hundreds of energy-intensive facilities globally, supporting everything from AI model training to YouTube and Gmail.

Michael points out that fusion is one of several paths the company is exploring. “This includes our landmark agreements for advanced nuclear and next-generation geothermal as well as our ability to identify and back promising earlier-stage technologies.”

As electricity demand increases globally, Google is betting that its scale and early investments will give it access to clean, firm capacity – power that’s always available, unlike solar or wind, which vary with weather.

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