The Sun is the “free ultimate nuclear reactor.”

Elon Musk publicly criticized efforts to build small nuclear fusion reactors on Earth as ‘incredibly foolish’ and once again endorsed solar energy, referring to the Sun as the ultimate ‘free fusion reactor.’

On December 15, Musk expressed his disdain for terrestrial nuclear fusion projects in a post on the X platform. He wrote: ‘The Sun is a massive, free fusion reactor in the sky. Building miniature fusion reactors on Earth is incredibly foolish.’

To emphasize the unparalleled energy advantage of the Sun, he used a striking analogy: ‘Even if you burned four Jupiters, the Sun would still account for, rounded off, 100% of all energy production in the solar system!!’

Musk even directly called on companies involved in the clean energy debate to stop investing. He said: ‘Stop wasting money on these trivial small reactors unless you openly admit they are just your pet science projects.’ This statement defined terrestrial nuclear fusion research and development as an expensive and unnecessary ‘side project.’

Data provided by another X user offered a sense of scale to Musk’s analogy: the Sun accounts for 99.86% of the entire solar system’s mass. The user noted, ‘Compared to Earth, Jupiter’s volume is 11 times that of Earth. Compared to Jupiter, the Sun’s volume is 10 times that of Jupiter. The Sun contains 99.86% of all the mass in our solar system.’

Musk’s remarks stand in stark contrast to the growing enthusiasm for nuclear fusion investments in Silicon Valley. At the same time as his comments, tech giants including NVIDIA and Google were making significant bets on fusion energy through direct investment and technical collaboration, hoping to leverage artificial intelligence to accelerate its commercialization.

Silicon Valley’s ‘Contrarian Bet’: AI Accelerates the Fusion Race

In stark contrast to Musk’s stance, other key players in Silicon Valley are betting heavily on fusion technology with real capital. Among them, Commonwealth Fusion Systems recently announced an $863 million investment, with chip giant NVIDIA being one of its investors.

Artificial intelligence is considered a key variable in accelerating this process. $Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$ DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company under Google, has announced a collaboration with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to utilize AI technology in accelerating the development of commercially viable fusion energy solutions that can be integrated into the power grid. In a blog post, Google DeepMind’s fusion team stated: “Our AI expertise combined with CFS’s cutting-edge hardware forms an ideal partnership for driving fundamental breakthroughs in fusion energy.”

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright also emphasized AI’s potential, stating that it ‘has immense potential to drive breakthroughs in areas such as materials research, digital simulations of stellar fusion, and molecular dynamics.’ He added: ‘The catalytic role of artificial intelligence cannot be overstated.’

In addition to commercial investments, fusion technology has also received significant official support. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently noted that ‘global fusion projects aimed at unlocking safe, abundant, and zero-carbon energy have now entered a critical phase.’

In the United States, government-level efforts are more concrete. According to reports, the U.S. Department of Energy released a new ‘Fusion Roadmap’ in October, outlining how to integrate such energy into the U.S. energy mix by the early 2030s. Jean Paul Allain, Deputy Director of the department’s Fusion Energy Sciences Office, stated: ‘Fusion is real, imminent, and ready for coordinated action.’

Editor/Doris