By Avi Salzman
The merger between the nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies and Trump Media & Technology Group is a strange and risky partnership that just might make sense.
The two companies have little in common, and the success of the combination is a longshot, mostly because nuclear fusion itself is still an unproven technology. For decades, fusion has been an expensive science experiment. The joke about it is that it is 20 years away from success, and always will be.
But fusion's prospects have improved in the past three years because of scientific breakthroughs and increased funding. Each company in this deal has something that could benefit the other.
TAE gives Trump Media a new business line that could eventually produce substantial revenue, which matters because the social media and crypto company reported less than $1 million in net sales in its latest quarter. Trump Media gives TAE access to capital that it desperately needs to build its first commercial reactor.
When the deal is signed, Trump Media is expected to transfer $200 million to TAE's projects, and then another $100 million once regulatory documents are filed. Trump Media also has political connections given the president's initial role in the company and the fact that his son Donald Trump Jr. sits on the board.
TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer will be a co-CEO of the combined company. He said in an interview that those connections weren't the reason for the deal.
"I'm a scientist and an entrepreneur, and I was looking for the capital necessary to accelerate commercial fusion at a pace that, so far, frankly, no private company has yet been able to achieve," he said. "And that's really what this does."
TAE, founded in 1998, is one of the oldest companies in the nuclear fusion industry. Operating out of a town called Foothill Ranch, between Los Angeles and San Diego, it has attracted serious backers including Google, Chevron, and Charles Schwab.
The company has already raised more than $1.3 billion over its history. It has gone through five iterations of models for fusion reactors, technology that is considered the holy grail of nuclear power.
Nuclear fusion energy is generated when two nuclei are combined under intense heat and pressure, similar to how the sun works. Some people in the industry call it "a star in a jar."
Today, all of the world's nuclear energy is generated from fission, the process of splitting the nucleus of an atom. That is an effective energy source, but fusion can potentially be much more powerful, supporters say. It generates four times as much energy as fission, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
A growing cohort of U.S. companies are seeking to create and harness fusion energy to power everything from homes to data centers. China and Europe are working on the technology, with government backing. In the U.S., private companies have raised nearly $10 billion in capital.
But money alone won't do it. Achieving consistent positive energy from fusion reactions is still remarkably complex, involving extreme heat and materials designed to tame and redirect volatile elements.
There has been real progress lately, however. In 2022, a federal lab in California generated more energy from a fusion reaction than it took to start the reaction. Binderbauer says that TAE uses a different process than the California lab, but one that can provide more consistent power once it is successful.
TAE is still choosing a site for its first reactor, which is expected to have the capacity for 50 megawatts of electricity, or enough for tens of thousands of homes. He projects that the reactor could be online as soon as 2031.
"We have a high degree of confidence. What was lacking was capital," he said.
Write to Avi Salzman at avi.salzman@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 18, 2025 11:44 ET (16:44 GMT)
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