BREAKINGVIEWS-Trump fusion sets deals dial to ludicrous mode

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

By Robert Cyran

NEW YORK, Dec 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Donald Trump is wrapping up a wild year of M&A with his own personal bow. The U.S. president's social media venture, Trump Media & Technology DJT.O, unveiled plans on Thursday to merge with nuclear fusion wannabe TAE Technologies in a $6 billion deal. It's a fitting preview of the folly yet to come.

Trump Media runs Truth Social, where the commander-in-chief regularly expresses himself, and carried $1.6 billion of cryptocurrency on its balance sheet at the end of September. The company, in which a Trump revocable trust holds 52% of the vote, racked up more than $140 million of expenses over the first nine months of 2025 with less than $3 million in revenue. Its self-proclaimed competency is “large capital raises and complex regulatory processes.”

On that silly basis, TAE makes a suitable partner. It brings “27 years of fusion research,” and aims to generate power using the atom-combining technology in 2031. It's an ambitious target considering that NextEra Energy, one of the largest nuclear operators, said this summer that building new plants using proven fission technology would probably take a decade. Fusion's promise of unlimited clean power has been just over the horizon since a project under Argentine President Juan Peron in the 1950s.

Progress has been made, but any arrival date or commercial terms are complete guesses. Trump Media and TAE shared precious little financial detail and refused to take questions following an eight-minute phone call with investors. If fusion doesn’t pan out, maybe the cancer therapy TAE says it's developing will provide a Plan B.

This goofy marriage is an apt coda to a 2025 filled with bold M&A. Deal volume has surged to nearly $5 trillion with a record-setting 70 transactions worth more than $10 billion apiece, according to Dealogic. There's a $100 billion bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O, a media empire that has cursed previous owners. The U.S. government also has intervened in unprecedented ways, including Trump negotiating veto power for himself as part of United States Steel's sale to Nippon Steel 5401.T.

More wackiness is on the way. SpaceX and OpenAI are among the privately owned ventures rocketing toward $1 trillion valuations, thanks to data centers in space and other artificial intelligence hype. Cash-stuffed shells are back on the prowl, too. More than 130 of these special-purpose acquisition companies, which often buy highly speculative targets in industries such as self-driving and space, raised $30 billion this year, just a quarter less than traditional initial public offerings, per Dealogic. By the end of 2026, a presidential crypto-fusion merger may seem conventional by comparison.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Trump Media and Technology Group said on December 18 it had agreed to merge with TAE Technologies, a company that is attempting to develop nuclear fusion power plants in an all-stock transaction valued at more than $6 billion.

As part of the transaction, TMTG will provide up to $200 million to TAE and an additional $100 million once relevant documents are submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The companies did not disclose any financial information about TAE, other than it had $3.1 billion of financial assets at the end of the third quarter.

TMTG reported $2.7 million of revenue for the first nine months of the year and operating expenses of $143 million. At the end of September, the company held more than $1 billion in cash and short-term investments and $1.6 billion of “digital assets” like bitcoin.

Yorkville Securities and Clear Street are advising TMTG while Barclays is advising TAE.

(Editing by Jeffrey Goldfarb; Production by Maya Nandhini)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on CYRAN/robert.cyran@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: robert.cyran.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))