The all-stock transaction comes amid growing demand for energy in the high-tech sector.
US President Donald Trump is getting into the fusion power business through a $6 billion merger between his social media company and Google-backed TAE Technologies, just days after industry representatives asked the federal government for funding.
The all-stock deal announced Thursday is an ambitious bet on a power boom fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and joins the Trump family’s growing roster of diverse ventures, from cryptocurrencies to real estate holdings to mobile services.
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The technology industry’s growing power demands have reignited interest in nuclear power in recent months, including restarting fully shuttered reactors, expanding existing plants and signing contracts for future small modular reactors.
But despite decades of global efforts, nuclear fusion, considered a clean and reliable power source, has yet to produce commercially viable nuclear reactors.
TAE has been working with Google Research on fusion science research for more than a decade, and its backers include Chevron Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation of the Americas.
Founded in 1998, the company also operates an energy storage business and a life sciences division that develops biologically targeted radiotherapy for cancer treatment.
Shareholders of both companies will own approximately 50% of the combined entity after the transaction closes in mid-2026. Trump Media and Technology Group will be the holding company for businesses including the Truth Social Platform, TAE Power Solutions and TAE Life Sciences.
“Major political support”
Trump Media shares soared nearly 33% in early trading, gaining attention on StockTweets, a social media hub for retail investors. Share prices of loss-making companies have fallen nearly 70% this year.
“In our view, TAE also clearly has significant political support from President Trump,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said.
Since returning to office this year, Trump’s close family members have promoted projects that leverage his political power and policy changes. For example, the Trump family has amassed billions of dollars in crypto-related wealth as the president pours support into digital financial assets.
For decades, physicists at companies and national laboratories have been trying to fuel fusion reactions, in which light atoms are forced together under extreme temperatures and release vast amounts of energy, the process that fuels the sun.
Major hurdles to commercializing fusion include extracting more energy from the reaction than is put into it and developing plants that can withstand the flow of fusion reactions to power the grid.
TAE CEO Michil Binderbauer and other fusion company leaders met with officials this month, weeks after the U.S. Department of Energy established the first fusion office.
Terms and conditions
The company, which has raised more than $1.3 billion in private funding, aims to more cost-effectively develop and market next-generation neutral beam systems for nuclear fusion and related applications.
Trump Media has agreed to provide TAE with up to $200 million in cash upon signing and an additional $100 million upon its initial registration application. The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies.
The companies plan to begin construction of the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant next year. Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes, a Republican who resigned in 2021 to become the company’s CEO, said on an investor call that the companies plan to “promptly seek approval” after the deal closes and that the search for a site for the factory is expected to begin by the end of 2026.
Nunes did not provide further details about the call with investors, which lasted just eight minutes.
He will become co-CEO of the new company along with Binderbauer. The combined company’s board of directors will have nine members, including Nunes, Binderbauer and Donald Trump Jr.
Trump Media derives its revenue primarily from advertising on its Truth Social platform, but has consistently posted losses since its founding. In the third quarter that ended in September, the company posted a loss of $54.8 million due to lower revenue.
