The merger announced Thursday between President Donald Trump’s social media company and the fusion energy giant TAE Technologies represents a massive cash bet on a technology that hasn’t yet been proven at commercial scale.
TAE is one of several companies racing to develop the world’s first working fusion power plant, after decades of hopes for generating vast amounts of waste-free electricity from the same type of nuclear reaction that fuels the sun.
But the obstacles to making fusion real are many, and daunting. For one thing, scientists have yet to perfect a way to contain the plasma that fusion reactions create — with temperatures topping more than 100 million degrees Celsius. Scientists have said solving those problems could take decades, even though several developers are vowing to bring a generator online by the early 2030s.
Critics say they are also concerned that hype about fusion will detract from other types of clean energy technologies — including wind and solar power, existing technologies that Trump has sought to cut off from federal support.
Several analysts said Thursday that the Trump media merger would likely give a financial boost to the industry, but would not be a turning point for fusion.
“It is another step to provide additional funding to move the nascent industry forward, but I do not see it as a ‘game changer,’” said Brian Wirth, head of the nuclear engineering department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Under the $6 billion deal, TAE and the Trump Media & Technology Group — the parent company of Truth Social — said they are planning to site and begin construction of the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant. The all-stock merger would create one of the world’s first publicly traded fusion companies and give Trump a major financial stake in its development.
“We’re taking a big step forward toward revolutionary technology that will cement America’s global energy dominance,” said Devin Nunes, a former Republican California congressman and CEO of Trump Media who would be the co-CEO of the combined company.
Upon closing, shareholders of each company will own approximately 50 percent of the combined venture. Trump is the largest shareholder of Trump Media, owning a share worth more than $1 billion.
Trump Media said it agreed to pay up to $200 million in cash to TAE, which has raised more than $1.3 billion from Google, Chevron, Goldman Sachs and other investors. Former Obama administration Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is on TAE’s board.
Unlike existing nuclear power plants, which rely on fission reactions that split uranium or plutonium atoms, nuclear fusion works by joining hydrogen isotopes together. In theory, fusion reactors could unleash massive amounts of energy without producing lost-lasting radioactive waste, or posing the risk of meltdowns. But fusion poses other technical obstacles — for example, the high-energy neutrons it generates that can damage equipment and make it radioactive, creating a potential hazard for workers.
Still, if the fusion efforts succeed, the results could be revolutionary for the grid, which is increasingly under strain as electricity demand soars because of artificial intelligence. As of this fall, fusion investments have soared above $9.7 billion, a fivefold jump since 2021, according to the Fusion Industry Association.
Among the industry leaders are Commonwealth Fusion Energy Systems, which is also backed by Google, and Helion Energy, which is supported by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Driving the enthusiasm in part are advances in supercomputing, magnets and a 2022 experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that demonstrated for the first time that a fusion reaction lasting a tiny fraction of a second can produce more energy than is put into it by lasers — long a technical barrier. (However, that gain didn’t account for the energy needed to power the lasers in the first place.)
"In more than 40 years in fusion research, I've never seen this level of interest," said Mike Campbell, a fusion expert and professor at University of California San Diego. "While much remains, the deal symbolizes the intense interest in commercializing the last new energy source humanity will ever need."
John Holdren, a research professor in Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and White House science adviser during the Obama administration, wrote in a 2024 paper that hype about fusion electricity is "dangerous" because it could set back the timetable for eventual success by frustrating investors, as well as drive a "false hope" of a silver bullet for climate change.
Among other challenges, the radioactive equipment created by fusion would probably require advanced robots for maintenance, a requirement that likely would be a “stretch” to develop by 2035, he said in an interview this summer, noting he supports fusion development overall.
The deal is likely to draw scrutiny as it puts Trump’s financial interests in competition with other companies working with the federal government. The administration has been pushing for advancement of fusion in various ways, including by creating a new office dedicated to the technology at the Department of Energy.
In October, DOE released a roadmap to develop fusion, and industry leaders have been meeting with department officials in recent weeks.
The reorganization of DOE this fall will help gear money more toward commercialization rather than lab research, according to Andrew Holland, head of the Fusion Industry Association.
The merger was approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close by the middle of next year, pending regulatory approvals. The companies said they are eyeing additional, larger fusion power plants after development of the first project.
Michl Binderbauer was named co-CEO with Dunes. The company is “excited to identify our first site and begin deploying this revolutionary technology,” Binderbauer said in a statement. On an investor's call Thursday, he said the company is eyeing 2031 as "first power" for its landmark fusion plant. Michael Schwab, founder and managing director of Big Sky Partners, is expected to be named chair of the board of directors.
With the move, Trump Media is venturing into new financial territory after historically relying on advertising revenue from the Truth Social social media platform.
Shon Hiatt, an associate professor at the University of Southern California’s business school, called the partnership a “strategic financial move” for both companies.
“Essentially, TAE needed funding, and Trump Media Group was looking for investment opportunities. Given the Trump family's history of investing in areas with supportive policies, this deal might indicate increased government support for nuclear energy — both fusion and fission — to power AI development,” he said.
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