While the planned merger between nuclear fusion startup TAE Technologies and Trump Media raised concerns in some corners about conflicts of interest, at least one group isn’t worried about unfair competition: Other fusion companies.
The surprise announcement on Friday that a social media company in which US President Donald Trump is the largest shareholder is suddenly pivoting into the highly complex, highly regulated nuclear power industry immediately raised the prospect that Trump could use his influence to speed the company through government reviews and give it preferential access to federal funding, to the president’s personal benefit. But other fusion CEOs told Semafor that, in effect, a rising tide lifts all boats.
“Ten years ago we could hardly have conceived of billions of dollars in private capital being made available to a commercial fusion energy company,” said Kieran Furlong, CEO of Realta Fusion. Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association, agreed: “New sources of funding for fusion, whether publicly traded, private capital, or government partnerships can only be positive.”
Trump Media’s flagging stock price popped on the news, but it will take time to know whether TAE is a good investment — beyond the monumental and still-unproven challenge of making fusion actually work at scale, success will require building and operating multi-billion dollar, first-of-their-kind commercial facilities. Of the dozens of fusion startups working now, many bankruptcies are inevitable. “There’s no way to fake your way in fusion,” said Alexander Valys, president of the startup Xcimer. “It doesn’t matter what names you’re associated with, the technology has to work, and that’s still the hardest thing.”