MW Trump administration backs nuclear fusion - as a company tied to Trump invests in it
By Victor Reklaitis
Trump Media & Technology is set to merge with a fusion power company, as the broader fusion sector is seeing new regulations and receiving boosts from the White House
Trump Media & Technology Group is pivoting toward nuclear fusion, a corner of the energy industry that has the Trump administration's support.
In October, the Trump administration released a "Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap" to support the construction of commercial fusion power plants as soon as the 2030s. It may not exactly resemble a Manhattan Project for nuclear fusion, but the road map indicated the federal government would support a constellation of American fusion companies and no longer treat them like an academic project.
Among several approaches, the road map pointed to a unique reactor concept - field-reversed configurations, "which could significantly reduce the cost of fusion power." It also referenced aneutronic fuels as being a potential source of "perhaps the greatest cost savings."
Two months later, in December, Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) - the publicly traded company behind President Donald Trump's Truth Social online platform - announced a merger agreement with TAE Technologies, an American fusion company that has helped pioneer field-reserved configurations and been a leader in the commercial development of aneutronic fuels.
The deal, which has not yet closed, represented an abrupt change of course for TMTG. Its stock soared two years ago as it became a popular way to bet on Trump's 2024 election win, but it has seen its shares drop by around 80% since that victory. The Florida-based company's moves to diversify by holding bitcoin (BTCUSD) and launching exchange-traded funds haven't come close to lifting its stock back to its prior heights.
Now, TMTG is pivoting toward nuclear fusion, a corner of the energy industry that has the Trump administration's support as it aims to start providing actual commercial power to the country's grid in a matter of years, after decades of experimentation. Nuclear fusion, which joins atoms, is the reaction that powers the sun; the technology remains unproven. Existing U.S. nuclear plants, which provide an estimated 18% of the country's electricity, rely on fission, which splits atoms.
But the Trump administration and its Energy Department are giving fusion a push from the federal government. Trump has issued executive orders to support the fusion industry and, in addition to providing its fusion road map, the Trump administration in November established an elevated Office of Fusion. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent federal agency, is in the process of finalizing a new regulatory framework for the fusion industry that some experts describe as a "light-touch" approach.
Some supporters of the fusion industry and watchdog groups have said TMTG's investment raises potential conflicts of interest, given the president's big stake in TMTG and his influence over the federal government, as well as state and local governments. Trump is TMTG's largest shareholder, with a 41% position held through a revocable trust in which he is the sole beneficiary, according to a regulatory filing. That trust has his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., as its sole trustee, and Trump Jr. is also on TMTG's board of directors.
"I think the conflict-of-interest problem is something very real, and I don't know how we get around that," said Rep. Mike Levin, a California Democrat who is a member of the bipartisan House Fusion Energy Caucus.
A TAE spokesperson told MarketWatch that the possible conflicts are "speculative," adding that the merger with TMTG hasn't even closed. The spokesperson said it's understandable for reporters to ask questions about the conflicts, "but out of fairness, it should be juxtaposed by the fact that there's been no indication of favorable treatment."
TMTG said in a statement that the company "rigorously adheres to the laws, regulations and ethics rules applicable to all our operations and will never weaken our commitment to full compliance." A spokesman for the Trump White House referred MarketWatch's questions about potential conflicts of interest to TMTG.
Trump Media & Technology is funding a unique fusion company
TAE is one of the oldest fusion companies, tracing its origins to accomplished physicists from the University of California, Irvine. Based in Foothill Ranch in California's Orange County, the company has said it's raised $1.3 billion in private capital since its founding in 1998, with money coming from big names like Google $(GOOGL)$ $(GOOG)$ and Goldman Sachs $(GS)$.
TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer, who has a doctorate in physics from UC Irvine, holds more than 100 U.S. and international patents, according to the company. TAE has focused on field-reversed-configuration fusion devices, which are relatively efficient and simpler than the tokamak fusion machines used by rivals and viewed as more stable. It also has bet on aneutronic fuels, which are seen as cleaner but require higher temperatures, while competitors have relied on neutronic fuels associated with more radioactivity but lower temperatures.
Levin, the California Democratic congressman, stressed that TAE is "a very real company," albeit with lots of competition, and that he has twice visited its headquarters.
Dan Brunner, a physicist who runs fusion-industry advisory firm Future Tech Partners, told MarketWatch that TAE is "certainly not an industry leader at this point." He wrote in his "The Fusion Conclusion" newsletter that many fusion experts "think that what TAE is trying to do is improbable if not impossible and have physics-informed calculations to back up their opinions."
When asked about such skepticism, a TAE spokesperson said in a statement that the company's "team and technology are battle-tested. Five successive fusion machines have proven the core physics, including the ability to stabilize plasma, a capability no other fusion program has matched at scale."
There is no debate, however, that TAE needs money to keep its capital-intensive plans going - and that's where Trump's publicly traded company comes in. TMTG, which has sued MarketWatch for defamation over an earlier article, has plenty of cash. Sarasota, Fla.-based TMTG reported 2025 revenue of just $3.7 million and a consolidated net loss for the year of $712 million. But the company - which is viewed by some as a meme stock whose valuation isn't tied to fundamentals - has a market value of nearly $3 billion. Since moving onto the Nasdaq stock exchange COMP by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company two years ago, it has raised cash from investors mostly by selling stock and equity-linked securities - leaving it with $3.1 billion in digital currencies, cash and short-term investments, securities filings show, on the eve of its deal with TAE.
TMTG agreed in December to merge with TAE in a way that will leave shareholders of each company owning 50% of the combined entity, regulatory filings show. Four months later, in April, TMTG sent $200 million to fund TAE, according to a corporate disclosure, and TMTG has committed to providing TAE with another $100 million.
In April, Devin Nunes resigned as CEO of TMTG. The initial plan for the TAE deal had called for Nunes to help run the combined company as co-CEO after the merger. His resignation followed a February announcement about talks to potentially spin off Truth Social, the president's social-media platform, from TMTG. Veteran media executive Kevin McGurn has taken over as interim CEO, and the company said in a statement to MarketWatch that it "remains committed to our strategic priorities, including consummating our merger and continuing to expand and refine all our platforms and services."
Trading on prediction market Polymarket recently indicated a roughly 50% chance that the merger will be completed by June 30 (Polymarket has a data partnership with Dow Jones, the publisher of MarketWatch). When they announced the merger, the companies said they expected it to close by mid-2026.
In the meantime, TAE has been touring Alabama, Ohio and Texas - states that have Republican governors and legislatures - as it evaluates potential sites for its first fusion power plant. The company said in a news release that it's assessing variables like infrastructure readiness, grid connectivity and "state and local incentives." TAE officials plan to pick a site and start construction this year for what they're billing as a "utility-scale fusion power plant."
While TAE was scouting possible sites in March and April, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a rival, said in April that it had become the first fusion power-plant developer to apply to connect to a major grid, as it aims to deliver electricity in the early 2030s from a plant in Virginia's Chesterfield County. Another leading fusion company is Helion Energy, which also relies on field-reversed-configuration devices. Helion is based in Washington state and aims to deliver electricity to Microsoft $(MSFT)$ by 2028.
'I've never seen anything remotely comparable to this'
In February, the U.S. Energy Department announced its "Genesis Mission" challenges - 26 high-priority objectives having to do with turning scientific research into commercially viable products or processes. One of the Genesis Mission challenges is a federal initiative aimed at "accelerating delivery of fusion energy." Trump paved the way for it and the other challenges by signing an executive order in November that launched the Genesis Mission program.
Trump signed another executive order in May 2025 that called for administration officials to "prioritize funding for qualified advanced nuclear technologies through grants, loans, investment capital, funding opportunities and other federal support."
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