The bustling city of Shanghai is characterized by its famous light shows, with which it accompanies its national holidays. More specifically, it lights up its skyscrapers with dazzling colors, according to CNN.

Shanghai is where scientists work under time pressure, racing to catch up with the next big global technological development, whether it’s 6G internet, advances in artificial intelligence or the next generation of robotics.

So, there in an alley in the center of the city that you don’t “look at”, is a small start-up called Energy Singularity and it is working on something exciting: nuclear power energy.

U.S. companies and industry experts have begun to worry that America is losing its decades-old lead in the race to manage this nearly inexhaustible form of clean energy, as new fusion companies spring up across China and Beijing overtakes Washington DC.

Why is there a battle over nuclear fusion?

Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun and other stars, is very difficult to reproduce on Earth. Many countries have achieved fusion reactions, but sustaining them long enough to be used in the real world remains elusive.

For scientists to tame nuclear fusion is therefore a tantalizing prospect that promises wealth and global influence to whichever country tames it first.

The reward for this action is its absolute effectiveness. A controlled fusion reaction releases about four million times more energy than burning coal, oil or natural gas, and four times more than fission, the type of nuclear power used today. It won’t be developed in time to fight climate change in this critical decade, but it could be the solution to future warming.

The Chinese are betting on this form of energy

The Chinese government is throwing money into the venture, putting approx 1 to 1.5 billion dollars per year in fusionaccording to Jean Paul Allain, who heads the US Department of Energy’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences. By comparison, the Biden administration spends about $800 million a year.

“To me, what’s more important than the number is actually how quickly they do it,” Allain told CNN.

Private companies in both countries are optimistic, saying they can get fusion power on the grid by the mid-2030s, despite huge technical challenges that remain.

The US was among the first in the world to take the futuristic gambit, working hard on fusion research since the early 1950s. China’s “foray” into fusion came later that decade. More recently, its pace has quickened: Since 2015, China’s fusion patents have soared, and it now has more than any other country, according to industry data published by the Nikkei.

Energy Singularity, the Shanghai start-up, is just one example of China’s speed of action, which is increasing.