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03.09.2023

Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Eni Sign Strategic Framework Agreement

Devens, MA – March 9, 2023 — Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) and Eni today signed a strategic framework agreement to advance the commercialization of fusion energy. This new multi-year collaboration establishes the terms under which a series of work projects now under development could include joint research, development, and deployment opportunities in the advancement of fusion energy and related technologies. This builds on the long-term cooperation between Eni and CFS which started with their early and significant investments in the company.

The strategic framework, signed by Bob Mumgaard, CEO of CFS, and Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni, during a meeting at CFS’ new 50-acre fusion campus in Devens, Massachusetts, is based on a mapping of existing collaboration between the two companies and a shared belief that innovative fusion energy research combined with the speed of the private sector can deliver the fastest path to clean commercial fusion energy to combat climate change. The initiative will allow the two companies to join forces in several exploratory domains such as technology collaboration, supply chain development, and innovative solutions and business models for CFS’ global ARC business.

“The collaboration framework between CFS and our long-standing partner, Eni, has great potential to advance our efforts on key global challenges and opportunities in transforming the energy landscape with a limitless supply of clean fusion energy,” said CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard. “This agreement underscores the key role existing energy companies play in accelerating fusion energy industrialization and the power of pairing of complementary organizations.”

Eni's CEO Claudio Descalzi said, "We will see the first CFS power plant based on magnetic confinement fusion at the beginning of the next decade, with then almost two decades ahead to deploy the technology and achieve the energy transition goals by 2050. Having this technology at the industrial level, providing large quantities of zero carbon energy produced in a safe, clean, and virtually inexhaustible way, will mean that we will contribute substantially to the energy transition challenge. This is why we are facing a potentially momentous technological breakthrough. For several years, Eni has placed technology leadership, with a neutrality and diversification approach, at the heart of its decarbonization path. Being aware of the great strategic value of this technology and the soundness of CFS, since 2018 Eni has invested in the business and was the first energy company to concretely engage in this sector. We now further strengthen this collaboration with our expertise and experience with the aim of accelerating the industrialization path of fusion as much as possible."

Under the terms of the agreement, CFS and Eni will jointly explore key initiatives, that could include:

  • Strategy and support in scaling CFS’ global ARC business, including power plant siting, market development, and the development of fusion workforce;
  • Project execution and operations collaboration for ARC and SPARC;
  • Supply chain development and management;
  • Technology collaboration in areas where the energy industry has unique capabilities, such as remote maintenance and robotics; and
  • Policy and international market development, including fusion energy regulations, and fusion education to help ensure a globally deployable technology.

CFS spun out of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center as a private company in 2018, and has raised more than $2 billion in funding since it was founded. The company’s approach to fusion is magnetic confinement, a well-studied and proven science. In 2021, CFS and MIT successfully demonstrated a revolutionary 20 tesla high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet, uniquely enabling CFS to develop commercial fusion energy systems by combining proven science with new innovation. The CFS roadmap envisages the completion and operational testing of SPARC, the first commercially viable net fusion machine, in 2025, and the start-up of ARC, the first fusion power plant on the grid, by the early 2030s.