USTC’s Sun Xuan: AI may “consume” one-fifth of the world’s electricity

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"Many people have probably heard this saying: The ultimate destination of AI is energy, and the ultimate destination of energy is fusion."

On September 11, at the 2025 Inclusion·Bund Conference, Sun Xuan, professor at the School of Nuclear Science and Technology at the University of Science and Technology of China and founder and chairman of Xingneng Xuanguang, reiterated this key industry consensus in his speech—nuclear fusion is the key technology for unlocking the next generation of civilization.

Sun Xuan pointed out that the rise of AI is exponentially driving up global energy consumption, and the answer to meeting this ultimate demand is nuclear fusion. Once achieved, fusion will not only bring about an energy revolution and spark an industrial revolution, but is also a crucial step towards harnessing the most common energy in the universe and advancing to a higher level of civilization.

Currently, the core driving force bringing fusion energy from the laboratory to an industry focus comes from its greatest demander—AI. Sun Xuan pointed out: "AI currently accounts for 1.5% of global electricity consumption. If we compare AI to the 'brain of the Earth', the human brain accounts for 20% of the body's energy consumption. Therefore, some predict that AI's electricity usage could also account for more than 20% of total global consumption."

This means that AI alone will create a huge energy gap.

Nuclear fusion is precisely the solution to the energy supply needed for the future development of AI technology. Fusion refers to two light nuclei combining into a heavier nucleus, and in this process, a mass deficit occurs, which can release enormous energy. Sun Xuan noted that nuclear fusion has extremely high energy density: 1 gram of fusion fuel releases as much energy as 8 tons of oil.

In fact, capital with a keen sense for cutting-edge technology has already taken action, actively laying out investments in this ultimate energy track. Sun Xuan pointed out that since 2020, investments in nuclear fusion have grown significantly, with top international tech companies like Nvidia, Google, and OpenAI all entering the fusion field, betting on this ultimate energy source—a consensus in the industry.

However, ultimate energy comes with ultimate challenges, and there are still technical difficulties on the path to the "artificial sun".

Sun Xuan explained that the core scientific difficulty in achieving nuclear fusion lies in confining plasma at temperatures as high as hundreds of millions of degrees: "It's a bit like trying to cage a very irritable wild beast—very hard." Currently, the mainstream technologies in pursuit of controlled fusion are divided into two directions: laser inertial confinement and magnetic confinement, both of which impose extremely high requirements on engineering construction. Whether developing highly precise giant lasers or building ITER-level behemoths, both face expensive costs and long construction periods.

For this reason, scientists have proposed a hybrid path called "magneto-inertial confinement", which can significantly reduce the cost and construction time, and improve the iteration efficiency. But this new fusion path brings the "challenge of human intelligence", relying on humans' understanding of the physical processes involved—a perfect application for AI technology.

On this issue, Sun Xuan put forward a groundbreaking vision: "Can we create an AI that can learn independently, without the need for existing experimental data, but instead explores based on physical rules—just like the AlphaZero Go software did—learning by itself, and independently designing a brand new fusion reactor?"

With the help of AI technology, the fusion field is regarded as being on the eve of commercial implementation. According to a report released by the US Fusion Industry Association last July, global nuclear fusion commercial companies have received a total investment of $7.1 billion, an increase of $900 million year-on-year, with capital market financing hitting new highs. Among the 35 companies surveyed, 89% are optimistic about achieving grid-connected power generation before the end of the 2030s.

China's nuclear fusion sector is also developing rapidly. Sun Xuan pointed out that China has achieved many breakthroughs in fusion, developing from single tokamak fusion in the early days to a variety of fusion forms now, with many research institutes, universities, and enterprises attaining many accomplishments in the field.

"The progress of AI represents the evolution of human intelligence from carbon-based to silicon-based, while fusion represents the shift from using existing earthly energy forms to the energy form of the universe. Achieving each of these is enough to herald a new era; if both can go hand in hand, they may even accelerate the coming of this great era."

Sun Xuan said bluntly, "When the future comes, perhaps we won't even realize it."

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