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Trump Media and Technology Group unveiled an extraordinary merger worth more than $6bn with TAE Technologies. TMTG intends to start building “the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant” next year in an effort to use the experimental technology to power the huge datacenters behind the development of AI.
Growing electricity needs of the technology industry has in recent months revived interest in nuclear power, including restarting fully shuttered reactors, expanding existing plants and signing contracts for future small modular reactors.
But despite decades of global efforts, nuclear fusion, often seen as a cleaner and reliable power source, has yet to produce a commercially viable reactor.
Companies and physicists at national laboratories have been trying for decades to foster fusion reactions, in which light atoms are forced together under extreme temperatures to release huge amounts of energy, a process that fuels the sun.
Big hurdles to commercialize fusion include getting more energy out of a reaction than what goes into it and developing plants that can withstand streams of fusion reactions to power the grid.
TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer and other fusion company leaders met with U.S. Energy Department officials after the department formed its first ever fusion office.
The company, which has raised more than $1.3 billion in private funding, is aiming to develop and sell next‑generation neutral beam systems for fusion and related applications in a more cost‑effective manner.
Trump Media has agreed to provide up to $200 million in cash to TAE at signing and $100 million more upon initial filing of the registration. The deal has been approved by the companies' boards.
The two companies plan to begin construction on the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant next year.
Source: Reuters