In a first-of-its-kind agreement, Google will purchase electricity from a nuclear fusion power plant. But the technology remains years from commercial scale.

Google and CFS aren’t alone in their ambitions. Microsoft inked a deal in 2023 to purchase electricity from a nuclear fusion generator being developed by Helion Energy, which is supposed to be ready by 2028. Around $8 billion from primarily private investors has flowed into fusion startups in recent years, the Washington Post reported last week.

Google is making a big bet on a power source that hasn’t yet been used successfully anywhere in the world: nuclear fusion. The tech company said on Monday that it will buy power from a planned nuclear fusion plant in Virginia developed by Commonwealth Fusion Systems,