The first 1PW laser was comissioned in the USA in the late 1990s with many systems  globally coming on-line throughout the 2000s opening up new and exciting areas of  science. In the following years many laboratories strived to increase the power, and hence the focussed intensity, to the 10PW regime, to realise new theoretical thresholds of fundamental science. Several lasers throughout the world, are in the process of construction/commissioning to achieve this goal in China, Romania, Czech Republic, and France with others planned in Japan, USA, Russia and the UK. The first of these systems, ELI-NP in Romania, has recently been the first to demonstrate this landmark achievement.