Moonshot AI released the largest free AI model in history at midnight UTC on July 27 — going ahead with the launch despite an explicit sanctions threat from the United States Treasury five days earlier.&nbsp;What Was Released&nbsp;Kimi K3's complete model weights are now publicly downloadable. At 2.8 trillion parameters, it is the largest AI model ever released as an open download, and it arrives having already topped coding leaderboards during its API-only period earlier this month.&nbsp;The distinction between this and a conventional model launch matters. Most frontier models are accessible only through a metered API controlled by the company that built them. Open weights mean any developer, company, university or government with sufficient hardware can download the model, run it on their own infrastructure, modify it, and build on it — with no permission required from Moonshot and no ongoing dependency on Chinese servers.&nbsp;It Shipped Under An Active Sanctions Threat&nbsp;The release proceeded despite direct pressure from Washington. On July 22, White House science and technology policy director Michael Kratsios publicly accused Moonshot of conducting large-scale covert distillation of Anthropic's Fable model to build Kimi K3 — the first time a senior US official had named a specific Chinese laboratory over a specific American model. Kratsios also alleged Moonshot had accessed Nvidia GB300 servers in Thailand, hardware barred from sale to Chinese firms.&nbsp;Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent escalated hours later: ‘Open source is not open season on American IP,’ he wrote, warning that ‘sanctions and Entity List designations will be on the table’ for large-scale distillation of American models.&nbsp;Moonshot released the weights anyway, on schedule.&nbsp;What The Release Actually Enables — Including Scrutiny&nbsp;The open-weight release cuts in an unexpected direction on the distillation question. Until now, external researchers could only observe Kimi K3's behaviour through its API and infer what was underneath. With the full weights public, independent researchers can examine the model's architecture directly and look for the statistical fingerprints that distillation from another model tends to leave behind.&nbsp;In other words, the release makes the American accusation more testable, not less. Several independent AI researchers have already questioned the original claim on timing grounds: Anthropic's Fable model only became publicly available on July 1, and Kimi K3 followed within roughly a week — a compressed window for an industrial-scale distillation operation to have been the primary driver of a 2.8-trillion-parameter system.&nbsp;The Competitive Effect&nbsp;A model of this scale available for free download changes the economics for every lab charging for comparable capability. Kimi K3 already undercut the market on price during its API period, running as low as $0.30 per million tokens on cached input against OpenAI's GPT-5.6 at $1 and Meta's Muse Spark 1.1 at $1.25. Now the API price is optional for anyone able to self-host.&nbsp;It also lands in a month when Chinese labs briefly held six of the top ten positions on independent model leaderboards, including all of the top five. Whether or not Washington's distillation case is ultimately proven, the immediate commercial reality is that the most capable freely downloadable model in the world is now Chinese.

Moonshot AI released Kimi K3's full weights at midnight UTC July 27 — a 2.8-trillion-parameter model, the largest ever released free. It shipped five days after the White House accused Moonshot of distilling Anthropic's Fable and Treasury threatened sanctions.

Moonshot AI released the largest free AI model in history at midnight UTC on July 27 — going ahead with the launch despite an explicit sanctions threat from the United States Treasury five days earlier. What Was Released Kimi K3's complete model weights are now publicly downloadable. At 2.8 trillion parameters, it is the largest AI model ever released as an open download, and it arrives having already topped coding leaderboards during its API-only period earlier this month. The distinction between this and a conventional model launch matters. Most frontier models are accessible only through a metered API controlled by the company that built them. Open weights mean any developer, company, university or government with sufficient hardware can download the model, run it on their own infrastructure, modify it, and build on it — with no permission required from Moonshot and no ongoing dependency on Chinese servers. It Shipped Under An Active Sanctions Threat The release proceeded despite direct pressure from Washington. On July 22, White House science and technology policy director Michael Kratsios publicly accused Moonshot of conducting large-scale covert distillation of Anthropic's Fable model to build Kimi K3 — the first time a senior US official had named a specific Chinese laboratory over a specific American model. Kratsios also alleged Moonshot had accessed Nvidia GB300 servers in Thailand, hardware barred from sale to Chinese firms. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent escalated hours later: ‘Open source is not open season on American IP,’ he wrote, warning that ‘sanctions and Entity List designations will be on the table’ for large-scale distillation of American models. Moonshot released the weights anyway, on schedule. What The Release Actually Enables — Including Scrutiny The open-weight release cuts in an unexpected direction on the distillation question. Until now, external researchers could only observe Kimi K3's behaviour through its API and infer what was underneath. With the full weights public, independent researchers can examine the model's architecture directly and look for the statistical fingerprints that distillation from another model tends to leave behind. In other words, the release makes the American accusation more testable, not less. Several independent AI researchers have already questioned the original claim on timing grounds: Anthropic's Fable model only became publicly available on July 1, and Kimi K3 followed within roughly a week — a compressed window for an industrial-scale distillation operation to have been the primary driver of a 2.8-trillion-parameter system. The Competitive Effect A model of this scale available for free download changes the economics for every lab charging for comparable capability. Kimi K3 already undercut the market on price during its API period, running as low as $0.30 per million tokens on cached input against OpenAI's GPT-5.6 at $1 and Meta's Muse Spark 1.1 at $1.25. Now the API price is optional for anyone able to self-host. It also lands in a month when Chinese labs briefly held six of the top ten positions on independent model leaderboards, including all of the top five. Whether or not Washington's distillation case is ultimately proven, the immediate commercial reality is that the most capable freely downloadable model in the world is now Chinese.

Moonshot AI released the full weights of Kimi K3 at midnight UTC on July 27, making the 2.8-trillion-parameter model the largest free AI model ever published. The release went ahead five days after the White House accused Moonshot of covertly distilling Anthropic's Fable model, and after the US Treasury Secretary warned that sanctions were ‘on the table.’

The largest free AI model in history is now live! Meet Kimi K3

The United States has banned imports of new Chinese-made humanoid robots and robot dogs, closing the American market to the country that has come to dominate global humanoid production.&nbsp;What The FCC Banned&nbsp;The Federal Communications Commission added foreign-made humanoid robots, quadruped robots — the four-legged machines commonly called robot dogs — and power inverters to its list of equipment prohibited on national-security grounds. The restrictions took effect immediately.&nbsp;There is an important limit to the ban that much of the early coverage has glossed over: it applies only to new models not yet authorised for sale in the United States. Robots that have already cleared US approval, including many made by market leader Unitree, can continue to be sold. The ban closes the door on what comes next rather than removing what is already deployed.&nbsp;The FCC said the devices could create supply-chain and cybersecurity risks, particularly if foreign actors were able to compromise or control them. ‘These devices could create supply chain vulnerabilities that could disrupt US economic and national security,’ the commission said. The decision followed a national security determination made by a White House-convened interagency body, which warned that internet-connected robots could pose data privacy and cybersecurity risks.&nbsp;Reporting by TechTimes states the FCC pointed to backdoors identified in Unitree hardware already deployed at American universities including MIT and Princeton — a claim that, if borne out by the commission's published order, would move the rationale from theoretical supply-chain risk to documented compromise.&nbsp;The Timing Could Not Be Worse For Unitree&nbsp;The ban lands at the precise moment Unitree was breaking into Western markets. On July 22, the company launched commercially in Europe, becoming the first Chinese-made humanoid to enter Western commercial markets. That European foothold may now be the only one it has.&nbsp;It follows a separate blow. On June 8, the Pentagon formally designated Unitree a Chinese military company under Section 1260H, barring it from US defence contracts. The company has previously worked with Nvidia on robots powered by the American chipmaker's technology.&nbsp;What China Stands To Lose&nbsp;The scale of Chinese dominance in this market explains why the ban matters. Of roughly 15,000 humanoid robots shipped globally in 2025, Unitree and AgiBot — two of China's largest advanced robotics companies — each shipped more than 5,000. Between them, the two firms accounted for the majority of the world's humanoid robot shipments.&nbsp;Chinese humanoids have competed primarily on price, undercutting American and Japanese rivals by wide margins and making the technology accessible to universities, research labs and smaller commercial buyers that could not afford Western alternatives. The US market has been a significant part of that growth.&nbsp;Beijing quickly accused the United States of protectionism.&nbsp;The Wider Pattern&nbsp;The robot ban is the latest expansion of a national-security framework the US has applied to Chinese technology across sectors — from telecommunications equipment to advanced chips to, now, physical robotics. Each round has followed a similar logic: that hardware built by Chinese firms and connected to the internet represents a potential channel for surveillance or disruption that cannot be reliably audited from outside.&nbsp;For the robotics industry, the practical effect is a market split. Chinese manufacturers retain scale and cost advantages globally, but are increasingly locked out of the American market — while American manufacturers, who ship far fewer units, gain a protected domestic market in which to catch up.

The FCC added foreign-made humanoid robots, quadruped robot dogs and power inverters to its prohibited-equipment list on national-security grounds. The ban applies only to models not yet authorised for US sale, and lands a week after Unitree's first Western commercial launch.

The United States has banned imports of new Chinese-made humanoid robots and robot dogs, closing the American market to the country that has come to dominate global humanoid production. What The FCC Banned The Federal Communications Commission added foreign-made humanoid robots, quadruped robots — the four-legged machines commonly called robot dogs — and power inverters to its list of equipment prohibited on national-security grounds. The restrictions took effect immediately. There is an important limit to the ban that much of the early coverage has glossed over: it applies only to new models not yet authorised for sale in the United States. Robots that have already cleared US approval, including many made by market leader Unitree, can continue to be sold. The ban closes the door on what comes next rather than removing what is already deployed. The FCC said the devices could create supply-chain and cybersecurity risks, particularly if foreign actors were able to compromise or control them. ‘These devices could create supply chain vulnerabilities that could disrupt US economic and national security,’ the commission said. The decision followed a national security determination made by a White House-convened interagency body, which warned that internet-connected robots could pose data privacy and cybersecurity risks. Reporting by TechTimes states the FCC pointed to backdoors identified in Unitree hardware already deployed at American universities including MIT and Princeton — a claim that, if borne out by the commission's published order, would move the rationale from theoretical supply-chain risk to documented compromise. The Timing Could Not Be Worse For Unitree The ban lands at the precise moment Unitree was breaking into Western markets. On July 22, the company launched commercially in Europe, becoming the first Chinese-made humanoid to enter Western commercial markets. That European foothold may now be the only one it has. It follows a separate blow. On June 8, the Pentagon formally designated Unitree a Chinese military company under Section 1260H, barring it from US defence contracts. The company has previously worked with Nvidia on robots powered by the American chipmaker's technology. What China Stands To Lose The scale of Chinese dominance in this market explains why the ban matters. Of roughly 15,000 humanoid robots shipped globally in 2025, Unitree and AgiBot — two of China's largest advanced robotics companies — each shipped more than 5,000. Between them, the two firms accounted for the majority of the world's humanoid robot shipments. Chinese humanoids have competed primarily on price, undercutting American and Japanese rivals by wide margins and making the technology accessible to universities, research labs and smaller commercial buyers that could not afford Western alternatives. The US market has been a significant part of that growth. Beijing quickly accused the United States of protectionism. The Wider Pattern The robot ban is the latest expansion of a national-security framework the US has applied to Chinese technology across sectors — from telecommunications equipment to advanced chips to, now, physical robotics. Each round has followed a similar logic: that hardware built by Chinese firms and connected to the internet represents a potential channel for surveillance or disruption that cannot be reliably audited from outside. For the robotics industry, the practical effect is a market split. Chinese manufacturers retain scale and cost advantages globally, but are increasingly locked out of the American market — while American manufacturers, who ship far fewer units, gain a protected domestic market in which to catch up.

The Federal Communications Commission has added foreign-made humanoid robots, quadruped robot dogs and power inverters to its list of equipment prohibited on national-security grounds, in a move squarely targeting China. The restrictions took effect immediately but apply only to models not yet authorised for US sale — arriving one week after Unitree became the first Chinese humanoid maker to launch commercially in the West.

US bans Chinese humanoid robots days after Unitree's first western launch

China may soon be able to launch its own private sun. It's 21 metres long. It weighs as much as nearly 100 African elephants. It must survive temperatures colder than outer space while holding plasma that's 10 times hotter than the Sun's core. And it has to keep doing that for six decades.Beijing, as per reports, has achieved a fusion breakthrough. The nation completed and tested the world's largest superconducting fusion magnet, a critical component designed to create an invisible magnetic cage capable of containing matter at 150 million degrees Celsius. The breakthrough moves Beijing another step closer to its long-term goal of generating commercial fusion power.Here's all you need to know about what may be one of the most extreme engineering projects humanity has ever attempted.&nbsp;<h2>582 tonnes: Why build a magnet this enormous?</h2>At first glance, it looks like a giant steel ring. In reality, it's a 21-metre-long, 12-metre-wide, D-shaped superconducting magnet weighing 582 tonnes. That's heavier than a fully loaded Boeing 747.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/scary-rogue-ai-on-the-loose-openai-agent-hit-another-tech-firm-s-customer-suggests-report-1785292505727">'Scary' Rogue AI on the loose? OpenAI agent hit another tech firm's customer, suggests report</a>Its job isn't to produce electricity. Its job is to do something arguably even harder: stop the hottest material ever created on Earth from touching anything.Inside a fusion reactor, hydrogen is heated until it becomes plasma, a superheated soup of charged particles. If that plasma touches the reactor walls for even an instant, it cools rapidly, damages the reactor, and the fusion reaction ends.The only way to prevent that is to suspend the plasma in mid-air using immensely powerful magnetic fields, creating what scientists often call an "invisible magnetic cage."<h2>150 million°C: Ten times hotter than the Sun's core</h2>Here's the number that may surprise most people. The Sun's core reaches roughly 15 million°C. China's fusion reactor aims to operate at around 150 million°C.That isn't because scientists are trying to outdo the Sun. The Sun's enormous gravity naturally squeezes hydrogen atoms together, allowing fusion to happen at relatively lower temperatures. On Earth, there's no such crushing pressure.Scientists have compensated by making the plasma dramatically hotter so hydrogen nuclei collide and fuse often enough to release energy.Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/india-s-next-terror-threat-may-not-cross-the-border-it-may-enter-through-your-phone-wion-decodes-1784346117443">India's next terror threat may not cross the border. It may enter through your phone | WION Decodes</a><h2>Minus 269°C: Hotter than the Sun, colder than space... at the same time</h2>The engineering challenge becomes even more astonishing. While the plasma burns at 150 million°C, the magnet surrounding it must remain at around minus 269°C, just four degrees above absolute zero.Only at those ultra-low temperatures can superconductors carry enormous electrical currents without resistance.So, inside a single machine, temperatures differ by nearly 150 million degrees over a relatively short distance. Very few technologies in the world operate across such an extreme thermal range.100,000 amps: Enough electricity to power a cityThe magnet doesn't just need to be cold. It also needs to carry more than 100,000 amperes of current while wasting virtually no energy.To achieve that, engineers reduced the electrical resistance at critical joints to nearly zero, allowing electricity to flow continuously through superconducting coils.Without that, sustaining fusion for long periods would be impossible.<h2>60 years: Built to outlive generations</h2>Most cutting-edge scientific instruments need to be upgraded every few years. However, China claims this magnet has been engineered to operate reliably for around 60 years.During that time, it must repeatedly withstand intense radiation, powerful magnetic forces and enormous mechanical stresses without losing performance.Designing a machine to survive six decades under those conditions may prove just as difficult as achieving fusion itself.<h2>Why the world is chasing fusion</h2>Nuclear fusion has long been regarded as the ultimate energy prize because it promises electricity without burning fossil fuels. Unlike today's nuclear reactors, which split heavy atoms, fusion combines light hydrogen atoms to release enormous amounts of energy.The potential rewards are enormous:<ul><li>Fuel derived largely from hydrogen found in seawater</li><li>No carbon dioxide emissions during power generation</li><li>No risk of a runaway nuclear meltdown</li><li>Far less long-lived radioactive waste than conventional nuclear fission</li></ul>That promise has sparked a global race involving China, the United States, Europe, Japan and several private companies investing billions of dollars in fusion research.<h2>When will China's artificial sun be up?</h2>While China hopes to begin fusion power generation around 2030, many experts believe commercial deployment could still take decades.

What weighs as much as 100 elephants, runs at temperatures colder than space and is built to contain a miniature star? China's 'Artificial Sun' could change the future of energy. All you need to know.

China may soon be able to launch its own private sun. It's 21 metres long. It weighs as much as nearly 100 African elephants. It must survive temperatures colder than outer space while holding plasma that's 10 times hotter than the Sun's core. And it has to keep doing that for six decades. Beijing, as per reports, has achieved a fusion breakthrough. The nation completed and tested the world's largest superconducting fusion magnet, a critical component designed to create an invisible magnetic cage capable of containing matter at 150 million degrees Celsius. The breakthrough moves Beijing another step closer to its long-term goal of generating commercial fusion power. Here's all you need to know about what may be one of the most extreme engineering projects humanity has ever attempted. 582 tonnes: Why build a magnet this enormous? At first glance, it looks like a giant steel ring. In reality, it's a 21-metre-long, 12-metre-wide, D-shaped superconducting magnet weighing 582 tonnes. That's heavier than a fully loaded Boeing 747. Also read | 'Scary' Rogue AI on the loose? OpenAI agent hit another tech firm's customer, suggests report Its job isn't to produce electricity. Its job is to do something arguably even harder: stop the hottest material ever created on Earth from touching anything. Inside a fusion reactor, hydrogen is heated until it becomes plasma, a superheated soup of charged particles. If that plasma touches the reactor walls for even an instant, it cools rapidly, damages the reactor, and the fusion reaction ends. The only way to prevent that is to suspend the plasma in mid-air using immensely powerful magnetic fields, creating what scientists often call an "invisible magnetic cage." 150 million°C: Ten times hotter than the Sun's core Here's the number that may surprise most people. The Sun's core reaches roughly 15 million°C. China's fusion reactor aims to operate at around 150 million°C. That isn't because scientists are trying to outdo the Sun. The Sun's enormous gravity naturally squeezes hydrogen atoms together, allowing fusion to happen at relatively lower temperatures. On Earth, there's no such crushing pressure. Scientists have compensated by making the plasma dramatically hotter so hydrogen nuclei collide and fuse often enough to release energy. Also read | India's next terror threat may not cross the border. It may enter through your phone | WION Decodes Minus 269°C: Hotter than the Sun, colder than space... at the same time The engineering challenge becomes even more astonishing. While the plasma burns at 150 million°C, the magnet surrounding it must remain at around minus 269°C, just four degrees above absolute zero. Only at those ultra-low temperatures can superconductors carry enormous electrical currents without resistance. So, inside a single machine, temperatures differ by nearly 150 million degrees over a relatively short distance. Very few technologies in the world operate across such an extreme thermal range. 100,000 amps: Enough electricity to power a city The magnet doesn't just need to be cold. It also needs to carry more than 100,000 amperes of current while wasting virtually no energy. To achieve that, engineers reduced the electrical resistance at critical joints to nearly zero, allowing electricity to flow continuously through superconducting coils. Without that, sustaining fusion for long periods would be impossible. 60 years: Built to outlive generations Most cutting-edge scientific instruments need to be upgraded every few years. However, China claims this magnet has been engineered to operate reliably for around 60 years. During that time, it must repeatedly withstand intense radiation, powerful magnetic forces and enormous mechanical stresses without losing performance. Designing a machine to survive six decades under those conditions may prove just as difficult as achieving fusion itself. Why the world is chasing fusion Nuclear fusion has long been regarded as the ultimate energy prize because it promises electricity without burning fossil fuels. Unlike today's nuclear reactors, which split heavy atoms, fusion combines light hydrogen atoms to release enormous amounts of energy. The potential rewards are enormous: Fuel derived largely from hydrogen found in seawater No carbon dioxide emissions during power generation No risk of a runaway nuclear meltdown Far less long-lived radioactive waste than conventional nuclear fission That promise has sparked a global race involving China, the United States, Europe, Japan and several private companies investing billions of dollars in fusion research. When will China's artificial sun be up? While China hopes to begin fusion power generation around 2030, many experts believe commercial deployment could still take decades.

What weighs as much as 100 elephants, runs at temperatures colder than space and is built to contain a miniature star? China's 'Artificial Sun' could change the future of energy. All you need to know.

582 tonnes, 150 million°C, 60 years: WION Decodes the mind-boggling numbers behind China's 'Artificial Sun'

Here, we bring you the news that is trending across WION's social media platforms - Nearly two years after discontinuing the use of the controversial robot dog, the New York Police Department (NYPD) is bringing it back. China’s artificial sun broke all records as it generated extremely hot plasma for seven minutes on the night of April 12. The artificial sun project is based on nuclear fusion, giving China an unlimited energy source without generating residual waste.

Robotic dogs to make a comeback to NYPD; China's artificial sun sets new record

Scientists from Seoul National University and the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy have made a major breakthrough in their pursuit of clean nuclear energy by creating an 'artificial sun' at the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reactor.

Scientists from Seoul National University and the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy have made a major breakthrough in their pursuit of clean nuclear energy by creating an 'artificial sun' at the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reactor. Reportedly, the reactor reached temperatures upward of 100 million degree Celsius for 30 seconds. Comparatively, the core of the sun hits temperatures around 15 million degrees. It is pertinent to note that nuclear fusion is considered the holy grail of energy and it is what powers our sun. It merges atomic nuclei to create massive amounts of energy, which is the opposite of the fission process used in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants, which splits them into fragments. × By mimicking the natural reaction of the sun, scientists are hoping that the technology may help humanity harness vast amounts of energy and help battle the energy crisis. “We usually say that fusion energy is a dream energy source – it is almost limitless, with low emission of greenhouse gases and no high-level radioactive waste – [but the latest breakthrough] means fusion is not a dream,” said Yoo Suk-jae, president, Korea Institute of Fusion Energy. Read more: China conducts nuclear fusion experiment for 'artificial sun' Unlike fission, fusion emits no greenhouse gases and carries less risk of accidents or the theft of atomic material. The scientists at KSTAR are not sitting on their laurels and have already put their sights on operating the reactor for five minutes or 300 seconds. “This is not the end of the story, we must move on to 300 seconds – 300 is the minimum time frame to demonstrate steady-state operations, then this plasma can work forever,” However, this is not the first time that an artificial sun has been created in laboratories. As reported by WION, Chinese scientists have been working on developing smaller versions of the nuclear fusion reactor since 2006. Reportedly, last year in December, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion energy reactor created an artificial sun, reaching temperatures of 70 million degrees Celsius for 1,056 seconds, which is five times hotter than the sun. Prior to that in May, the same reactor ran for 101 seconds at a temperature of 20 million degrees Celsius. Read more: Hotter than the real Sun?: China's 'artificial Sun' sets massive record for plasma fusion (With inputs from agencies) WATCH WION LIVE HERE:

South Korean scientists create an 'artificial sun' in pursuit of unlimited clean energy

A new record has been set by the Chinese 'artificial sun' or the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) fusion energy reactor in Hefei as it ran at 70 million°C) for 1,056 seconds, which is over 17 minutes. The record was apparently achieved on December 30.&nbsp;

Media reports have mentioned that the achieved temperature is almost five times hotter than the real Sun, which hits a temperature of 15 million°C at its core.

Quoting experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinhua reported that the continuous high-temperature plasma operation is the longest time of operation of its kind in the world.&nbsp;

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/part-of-failed-russian-rocket-makes-uncontrolled-re-entry-into-earths-atmosphere-crashes-442554">Part of failed Russian rocket makes uncontrolled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, crashes</a>

The previous record set by EAST set was in May by running for 101 seconds at a higher temperature of 20 million°C. &nbsp;

It is learned that the aim of EAST is basically to create nuclear fusion like the Sun to provide clean energy after using deuterium abound in the sea.&nbsp;

Gong Xianzu, who is a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced the development. Xianzu is in charge of the experiment conducted in Hefei. &nbsp;&nbsp;

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/chemical-leftovers-from-earths-creation-still-lingering-deep-within-our-planet-study-442513">Chemical leftovers from Earth's creation still lingering deep within our planet: Study</a>

"We achieved a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds in an experiment in the first half of 2021," said Xianzu, as quoted by Xinhua.

"This time, steady-state plasma operation was sustained for 1,056 seconds at a temperature close to 70 million degrees Celsius, laying a solid scientific and experimental foundation toward the running of a fusion reactor," he added.&nbsp;

Important to note that nuclear fusion power works by colliding heavy hydrogen atoms to form helium. It releases vast amounts of energy.&nbsp;

A new record has been set by the Chinese 'artificial sun' or the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) fusion energy reactor in Hefei as it ran at 70 million°C) for 1,056 seconds, which is over 17 minutes.

A new record has been set by the Chinese 'artificial sun' or the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) fusion energy reactor in Hefei as it ran at 70 million°C) for 1,056 seconds, which is over 17 minutes. The record was apparently achieved on December 30. Media reports have mentioned that the achieved temperature is almost five times hotter than the real Sun, which hits a temperature of 15 million°C at its core. Quoting experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinhua reported that the continuous high-temperature plasma operation is the longest time of operation of its kind in the world. ALSO READ | Part of failed Russian rocket makes uncontrolled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, crashes The previous record set by EAST set was in May by running for 101 seconds at a higher temperature of 20 million°C. It is learned that the aim of EAST is basically to create nuclear fusion like the Sun to provide clean energy after using deuterium abound in the sea. Gong Xianzu, who is a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced the development. Xianzu is in charge of the experiment conducted in Hefei. ALSO READ | Chemical leftovers from Earth's creation still lingering deep within our planet: Study "We achieved a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds in an experiment in the first half of 2021," said Xianzu, as quoted by Xinhua. "This time, steady-state plasma operation was sustained for 1,056 seconds at a temperature close to 70 million degrees Celsius, laying a solid scientific and experimental foundation toward the running of a fusion reactor," he added. Important to note that nuclear fusion power works by colliding heavy hydrogen atoms to form helium. It releases vast amounts of energy.

Hotter than the real Sun?: China's 'artificial Sun' sets massive record for plasma fusion