High-energy pulsed lasers have been developed since the birth of the ruby laser in 1960. Among various solid-state and gaseous lasers, the high energy Nd-doped glass laser has been developed most extensively due mainly to its suitability for laser fusion research in terms of high-energy generation, temporal and spatial pulse shape controllability, and short-wavelength conversion. These developments have led to the demonstration of the laser fusion ignition, with a target gain of G = 1.5 in 2022 at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Pak et al. in Phys Rev E 109:025203, 2024). In parallel, laser development is moving toward repetitive, high-energy pulsed lasers required for realization of laser fusion power plants. In Sect. 6.1, a brief overview of the high-energy pulsed solid-state lasers for laser fusion and high-energy density science is presented. Then a detailed account of NIF, a high-precision and high-energy laser system, is described in Sect. 6.2. Section 6.3 describes laser-diode-pumped high-average-power pulsed lasers and high-power laser diodes which are applicable to laser fusion, high intensity science, and industrial applications. Section 6.4 describes development of high-energy, pulsed excimer lasers, which have several unique properties as laser fusion driver.