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Both the US and China rely on uranium-based fission, but they seem to be diverging on their next bet. China is exploring thorium based fission, while US is leaning toward fusion [1]

[1] Trump Media’s merger with the fusion company TAE - https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/12/18/320754...

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China's doing fusion stuff too.

Not as much as US. Everyone from trump to Altman is betting on fusion. But China is more pragmatic by focusing on making fission resistant to supply chain shocks in uranium. Since they are fast follower, their plan might be to catch up, once fusion is viable for practical use.

Their government is chipping in a lot - there's a CNBC video about it with footage of a lot of stuff going on there and the US https://youtu.be/nyn0HUqluVM Says China has 10x as many fusion PhDs and more patents. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out. They kind of overtook in batteries, solar and EVs by doing the 10x as many engineers thing.

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