CFS Orders Over 10,000 Kilometers of Superconducting Tape From Fujikura

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced on 2026년 9월 30일 that it agreed to purchase more than 10,000 kilometers (3 GA-m) of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tape from Fujikura Ltd. under a long-term supply agreement, an order the company described as the largest of its kind for the material.

CFS will use the tape in the development of its ARC fusion power plants, starting with the first grid-scale plant being developed at the Fall Line Fusion Power Station in Chesterfield County, Virginia. Fujikura is investing in an expansion of its manufacturing capacity to enable delivery of the tape at scale.

The company characterized the agreement as a major milestone toward the construction of ARC power plants and said it will help strengthen the industrial supply chain essential to bringing commercial fusion power to market. CFS also described the deal as an important step in U.S.-Japan collaboration and in building the industrial ecosystem needed to support commercial fusion energy.

“This partnership with Fujikura demonstrates how we’re actively placing orders and getting ready to execute our ARC power plant once our SPARC fusion machine achieves Q>1,” said Bob Mumgaard, CEO and co-founder of Commonwealth Fusion Systems. “We’re pleased to find partners like Fujikura that understand our manufacturing priorities, share our sense of urgency, and are willing to make the investments necessary to help us scale so that together we can meet future demand for this crucial energy source worldwide.”

“With this agreement, Fujikura will continue to strengthen its position as a key supplier of HTS tape for ARC power plants while building a long-term business platform for the 2030s and beyond, when commercial fusion power plants are expected to begin operation,” said Naoki Okada, Fujikura’s representative director, president and CEO.

ARC and the Fall Line Fusion Power Station

In a 2024년 12월 17일 announcement, CFS said it would build the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant at the James River (JRVR ) Industrial Center in Chesterfield County, following what the company called a global search for the site. CFS said it will independently finance, build, own, and operate the plant. Dominion Energy (D ) Virginia agreed to provide non-financial collaboration, including development and technical expertise as well as leasing rights for the proposed site, which it owns.

The company said ARC would generate about 400 megawatts of electricity, enough energy to power large industrial sites or about 150,000 homes. CFS projected the project would generate billions of dollars in economic development in the region and create hundreds of jobs during the construction and long-term operation of the power plant.

In the same 2024 announcement, CFS said it was completing development of SPARC, its fusion demonstration machine, at its headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts. The company said SPARC was expected to produce its first plasma in 2026 and net fusion energy shortly after, demonstrating for the first time a commercially relevant design that will produce more power than consumed, and that ARC was expected to deliver power to the grid in the early 2030s.

Fujikura’s Superconducting Tape Expansion

The supply agreement follows a series of capacity investments by Fujikura. In a 2026년 2월 9일 release, Fujikura announced a capital investment of 5.6 billion yen in production expansion facilities for high-temperature superconductors, stating that demand for the material is expected to grow in line with advancements in fusion energy development.

Fujikura said it executed approximately 6 billion yen in capital investment during fiscal 2024 with the goal of increasing HTS production capacity to approximately three to four times its previous level by fiscal 2027. The company said the additional investment was expected to increase capacity by a further approximately twofold, elevating its HTS production capacity to what Fujikura described as one of the world’s largest scales.

Fujikura’s tape maintains superconducting properties at higher temperatures and can generate extremely strong magnetic fields, characteristics the company says make it essential for the superconducting magnets that confine and control plasma at approximately 100 million degrees Celsius in fusion reactors. CFS’s design uses a magnetic confinement system of the tokamak type, in which toroidal field coils, poloidal field coils, and a central solenoid coil built with high-temperature superconductors generate the strong magnetic fields that confine the plasma, according to Fujikura’s description of the technology.

In a 2025년 9월 2일 release, Fujikura said it had invested in CFS in collaboration with a consortium of 12 Japanese companies whose listed members include Mitsui & Co., Mitsubishi Corporation, Development Bank of Japan, JERA, JGC Japan, Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, NTT, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, and Kansai Electric Power. Fujikura described the investment as its third in the fusion energy sector, following Kyoto Fusioneering and EX-Fusion, and said it has supplied high-temperature superconducting wire to CFS since the American company’s founding. The Japanese consortium will acquire technical and commercial expertise in policy, regulatory matters, and the development, construction, operation, and maintenance of ARC from CFS’s commercialization projects in the United States, according to the release.

Fujikura’s 2025년 9월 release described CFS as the world’s leading and largest private fusion company, a business spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018 and headquartered in Devens, Massachusetts, with more than 1,000 employees and approximately $3 billion raised at that time.