President Donald Trump’s social media and crypto company is making a huge bet on a far different industry – nuclear fusion, a potentially lucrative albeit commercially unproven energy technology that could help power a suddenly electricity-starved economy.
Trump Media and Technology Group Thursday announced a surprise merger with TAE Technologies, in an all-stock deal valued at more than $6 billion that would create one of the first publicly traded fusion companies. News of the deal shares of Trump Media (DJT) 35 percent higher in early trading Thursday.
Fusion has long held the promise as a source of clean, safe, and cheap energy. And that need for energy has become more critical than ever in recent years. The surge of investment in artificial intelligence has resulted in a building spree of power-hungry AI data centers.
After the deal closes, shareholders of Trump Media and TAE would own about 50 percent of the combined entity. The combined companies plan to begin construction as soon as next year of the world’s first fusion reaction that could produce electricity on utility scale, rather than just in laboratory settings.
The combination with TMTG could give TAE political clout. But it could also make it more politically controversial, particularly if it looks to receive any kind of federal government support, such as grants, low-interest loans or permitting approvals.
It could also give TAE access to capital that it needs. Under terms of the deal, TMTG would provide $300 million in cash for TAE’s plans. But that is likely a fraction of the cash available from some of TAE’s current investors, such as Google parent company Alphabet, as well as its bevy of private equity investors.
But that $300 million is only a fraction of the money that TAE needs, or expects to be able to access, once it has become a public company with this deal. Staying a private company, even with deep pocketed investors, is no longer sufficient TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer told CNN Thursday.
“It’s a multi-billion dollar undertaking,” he said. “The velocity you can get the capital is differentiating. If I raise $2 billion over five years I can’t built the plant sufficiently fast.” He said the company has raised about $1.3 billion over the course of its 25-year history.
The news comes as Trump Media’s share price has plunged this year. Truth Social has struggled to gain traction, remaining a far smaller player than rival social media platforms. It has announced efforts to diversify into artificial intelligence, crypto and asset management. This is by far its most diversified investment, but one that has the potential to be by far the most lucrative if it works out as planned.
Trump launched Trump Media in 2021 as part of an effort to build a counterweight to Big Tech and existing social media platforms. Trump Media went public in 2024 by merging with a blank-check company in a deal that raised billions of dollars despite the company generating almost no revenue.
After Trump won election last fall, he transferred his dominant stake in Trump Media to a revocable trust that he is the sole beneficiary of and that is controlled by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
Fusion essentially is the quest to replicate on Earth the process that powers the sun and other stars. It involves fusing atoms together to create an exceptionally powerful burst of energy, achieved using the most abundant element in the universe: hydrogen.
This futuristic energy is seen as something of a clean energy holy grail as it is near limitless, produces no planet-heating pollution and unlike fission — the world’s current nuclear technology — it leaves no legacy of long-term nuclear waste.
Countries and private companies, like TAE Technologies, are racing to master fusion, but there are huge challenges to proving the process can work and taking it from the lab to commercial use. These are very expensive ventures that rely on fundraising until they can prove fusion is successful – which is likely still years, or even decades, away.
Fusion companies raised more than $2.6 billion in the first seven months of this year, according to the Fusion Industry Association, with backing coming from a wide range of investors. But it still falls far short of the amount companies say they need to bring their first pilot plants online.
Although researchers have made advances in laboratories, fusion has yet to provide energy on a commercial scale.
But TAE says it is poised to be able to do just that, with plans for to start construction of the first utility-scale fusion power plant in 2026 at a yet to be determined location. But it will still take “five-ish” years to start producing electricity, Binderbauer told CNN Thursday.
“TAE has more than 25 years of R&D in the lab and safely built and operated five fusion reactors and importantly proven major energy and fusion breakthroughs over the years, putting TAE at the top of the mountain in the fusion global scene in our view,” said Dan Ives, tech analyst with Wedbush Securities, in a note Thursday.
“TAE will also clearly have major political support from President Trump in our view and this importantly will create a major nuclear fusion US energy domestic bet over the coming years,” he wrote.
Nuclear power has come back into vogue in recent years as artificial intelligence creates huge new demand for electrical energy to drive computers in data centers. Fusion or other sources of power could help with America’s electrical supply problems without nuclear’s downsides or siting controversies.
“It’s an arms race with China,” Ives told CNN. “The US facing major energy shortages/issues to fuel the AI data center transformational buildout over the next decade. While the US is ahead of China from an AI technology perspective, China is clearly leading on the energy front with a major surplus. If they’re a US answer for fusion, it’s TAE. The biggest thing missing is capital.”
While Trump Media and Technology Group is not profitable, it does have significant assets, especially from its crypto currency investments. Its balance sheet showed $1.5 billion in digital assets on the books and an additional $550 million in other short-term investments.
But that is a paltry amount compared to the cash on hand at various other major tech companies. For example, Google owner Alphabet has $95.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities on its balance sheet.
Binderbauer told CNN that TMTG proved to be the partner he was looking for to take the company public.
“Sometimes you get lucky and you meet the right people,” he said. And he’s not concerned that any government support it needs or receives will become more politically controversial due to his ties to Trump.
“I’m not looking for anything special,” he said. “Perhaps you get more scrutinized from a regulatory perspective and that’s good because it will give the world confidence that the technology is what matters.”
Alphabet is one of the investors in TAE already, according to data compiled by FactSet, along with Chevron, Charles Schwab, the government of Kuwait and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who passed away in 2018, as well as a number of venture capital firms. Michael B. Schwab, founder and managing director of one of those venture capital firms, Big Sky Partners, is expected to be named chairman of the merged TMTG and TAE.
Devin Nunes, the CEO of Truth Media & Technology Group, will serve as co-CEO of the combined company with along with TAE CEO Binderbauer. Nunes and Donald Trump Jr. will be two members from TMTG to join the nine-member board of the combined company.
“Fusion power will be the most dramatic energy breakthrough since the onset of commercial nuclear energy in the 1950s—an innovation that will lower energy prices, boost supply, ensure America’s AI-supremacy, revive America’s manufacturing base and bolster national defense,” Nunes told investors on a brief call Thursday morning during which neither he nor Binderbauer took any questions. “Together with TAE, we will have the capital and public market access to scale TAE’s vision to put abundant nuclear energy on the grid.”
This story has been updated with additional developments and context.
CNN
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