CERN Secures $1 Billion for Future Circular Collider Project
CERN has made a groundbreaking advancement in its funding strategy by securing $1 billion in private donations for the Future Circular Collider (FCC). This marks a significant change in its 72-year history, as the organization seeks to address the projected $18 billion cost of the ambitious project. Key contributors include the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund, and prominent entrepreneurs John Elkann and Xavier Niel, who pledged this amount in December 2025.
$1 Billion Investment in Future Circular Collider
The FCC is expected to be a monumental successor to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Fabiola Gianotti, CERN’s Director-General, expressed gratitude to the donors, emphasizing the unprecedented nature of this collaboration. “It’s the first time in history that private donors wish to partner with CERN to build an extraordinary research instrument,” Gianotti stated in a press release on December 18, 2025.
Project Specifications and Timeline
- Tunnel Length: 90.7 km (56.3 miles)
- Depth: 200 meters underground
- Initial Construction Start: 2030 (pending CERN Council decision in 2028)
- Operational Launch: Expected in 2047
The FCC will consist of two key phases. Initially, the FCC-ee will serve as a Higgs factory, designed to produce one million Higgs particles. This phase aims to analyze their properties with ten times the precision of the LHC. The second phase, scheduled for around 2073, will introduce the FCC-hh, a high-energy collider focused on smashing protons at 85 TeV.
Impact of China’s CEPC Project Delay
The initiative comes at a time when China’s proposed Circular Electron–Positron Collider (CEPC) has encountered significant delays. Beijing has decided not to include the CEPC in its 2026-2030 five-year plan, giving CERN a clearer path to maintain its status as a leading physics research center. There’s potential for collaboration, where China could contribute components and expertise to the FCC project.
CERN’s new Director-General, Mark Thomson, has a daunting task ahead. He must not only secure diplomatic agreements for the FCC but also oversee the major upgrades to existing laboratory infrastructure. An immediate focus for Thomson is the anticipated LHC shutdown in June 2026, which will initiate the High Luminosity LHC upgrade.
Future Prospects
The High Luminosity upgrade aims to replace nearly 90 percent of the LHC’s focusing systems. Using advanced niobium-tin superconducting magnets, this enhancement will enable particle beams to achieve an unprecedented diameter of just 10 microns by 2030. The result will be significantly increased collision rates, further propelling physics research into new frontiers.
