Italian oil giant ENI and Commonwealth Fusion System (CFS), a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), signed a new cooperation agreement on Thursday to speed up the industrialization of fusion energy. ENI first invested in CFS in 2018 and is a major shareholder. 

Thursday's agreement strengthens the partnership between the two companies, bringing together ENI's engineering and project management expertise and CFS' development project network. The agreement paves the way for construction of the first commercial power plant based on magnetic confinement fusion capable of feeding electricity into the grid.