TMTG, which owns president’s Truth Social platform, says construction of first plant could begin next year
The company behind US president Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform is merging with a Google-backed energy company in a deal valued at more than $6bn (€5bn) that could lead to construction of “the world's first utility-scale fusion power plant” next year.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and TAE Technologies, a California-based private company developing technology to generate power from nuclear fusion, announced the plans on 18 December in a joint statement, which said the move would “create one of the world’s first publicly traded fusion companies”.
The statement said the combined company planned to begin constructing a 50-MW utility-scale fusion power plant next year, with further plants to follow.
“Additional fusion power plants are planned and expected to be 350–500 MW,” TAE said. “Fusion power plants are expected to provide economic, abundant, and dependable electricity that would help America win the AI revolution and maintain its global economic dominance.”
Under the merger both firms will have an equal 50% share in ownership after the deal is completed, which is expected by mid-2026 pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.
TAE said that after more than 25 years of research and development, it has significantly reduced fusion reactor size, cost and complexity.
“TAE has built and safely operated five fusion reactors and raised more than $1.3 billion in private capital to date from Google, Chevron Technology Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, NEA, the visionary family offices of Addison Fischer, the Samberg Family, Charles R. Schwab, and others,” it said.
The tie-up with TAE signals a surprising shift for TMTG, as it moves from social media and financial offerings into the energy sector.
Devin Nunes, TMTG’s chairman and chief executive officer, made the case for the planned combination of social media and fusion power.
“Trump Media & Technology Group built uncancellable infrastructure to secure free expression online for Americans, and now we’re taking a big step forward toward a revolutionary technology that will cement America’s global energy dominance for generations,” Nunes said in a statement.
“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 our manufacturing base and bolster national defense.”
TMTG “brings the capital and public market access to quickly move TAE’s proven technology to commercial viability”, he added.
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier one while releasing massive amounts of energy. It is the same process that powers the sun and the stars and could potentially provide limitless amounts of energy.
