Joe Paluska on Why Cracking the Cosmic Power of Fusion is ‘Humanity’s Power Move’

While most of the buzz at CES 2026 centers on the latest gadgets, one conversation at The Foundry in Las Vegas felt significantly more... celestial. Faith Pinnow sat down with Joe Paluska, Chief Marketing Officer of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), to discuss a technology that could fundamentally rewrite the rules of human civilization: fusion energy.

For decades, fusion – the process that powers the sun – has been the “forever 30 years away” joke of the scientific community. But according to Paluska, that myth is officially busted.

The Mosh Pit of Energy

To understand the hype, you first have to understand the physics. Unlike fission (splitting atoms), fusion is about merging them.

“I like to say fusion is like going into a mosh pit or rave,” Paluska explained with a grin. “You’ve got to get hot next to each other, bounce around for a lot, and then you unleash a ton of energy.”

The key to CFS’s breakthrough isn’t just the physics; it’s the magnets. By using a Nobel Prize-winning material called High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) tape, the team has built magnets that are compact but incredibly strong. One bed-sized magnet developed by CFS is theoretically powerful enough to lift an aircraft carrier out of the water.

From Constraint to Abundance

The shift from “if” to “when” is happening fast. CFS is currently 70% finished building SPARC, a demonstration machine outside Boston slated to turn on in 2027. Even more ambitious is Arc, the company’s first commercial power plant planned for Richmond, Virginia. Tech giant Google has already signed on to buy half the power it produces.

Paluska argues that cracking the fusion code moves humanity from a world of energy constraint to one of energy abundance. In a fusion-powered world, the geopolitical “domino effect” of oil dependency and natural gas shortages vanishes.

“Society’s been working on trying to crack the code of fusion for almost 100 years now... we go from a world of energy constraint to a world of energy abundance.”

Hope as a Strategic Asset

Beyond the industrial applications like desalination and carbon capture, Paluska sees a deeper mission. In a world where young people are increasingly prone to a “dystopian view” of the future due to climate change, fusion represents a tangible reason for optimism.

“What fusion does for [students] is it gives them hope for the future. Well, here’s the 2026 year. There’s hope. Here’s the hope.”As the “Consumer Everything Show” proved, the most important product on display this year wasn’t a new phone or a smarter car—it was the audacious promise of limitless, clean energy.

Key Quotes from Joe Paluska

On the energy of fusion: “Fusion is like going into a mosh pit or rave. You got to get hot next to each other, bounce around for a lot, and then you unleash a ton of energy.”

On the timeline for commercialization: “The myth is that fusion is always 30 years away. It’s actually two years away... we’re going to turn on [SPARC] in 2027.”

On energy security: “With fusion, it’s technology that anybody can build... then you’re not dependent upon fossil fuels. You’re not dependent on acreages for wind or solar. You’re just dependent on basically a really low fuel source from water.”