Why Trump Media is merging with fusion firm TAE Technologies
President Donald Trump’s social media company will provide needed capital TAE Technologies‘First fusion power plant to come online in the United States by 2031, TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer he told CNBC on Thursday.
Binderbauer spoke shortly after his private company and Trump Media and Technology Group announced plans to merge all shares valued at over $6 billion.
The CEO said the deal would combine Trump Media’s “fortress balance sheet” with TAE’s technologies.
“We have the capacity and technology to really scale this,” Binderbauer told CNBC.
“We had the engineering ability to do this, but the last piece of the puzzle was the capital,” he said. “Now you combine capital with the underlying technical talent base.”
Fusion is a form of nuclear energy that could one day produce enormous amounts of energy by fusing atoms together. The process that powers the Sun does not produce the long-lived radioactive waste that is a byproduct of fission that occurs in traditional nuclear reactors.
Despite decades of research, scientists and companies have so far been unable to commercialize fusion technology. Fusion ignition achieved only for the first time In a laboratory environment in December 2022.
But Binderbauer said he’s optimistic about his company’s prospects for reliably producing and selling fusion power now that it can get funding from Trump Media.
Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social app, will invest up to $200 million in TAE, with another $100 million coming after applying to TAE. Securities and Exchange Commissionsaid Binderbauer.
Trump Media’s revenue is inadequate compared to its market capitalization and balance sheet, which stood at more than $4 billion as of Thursday.
In the third quarter ending Sept. 30, Trump Media had financial assets of $3.1 billion, including cash and digital assets. The company announced last month.
Trump Media reported a net loss of $54.8 million for the quarter on sales of just under $973,000.
TAE and Trump Media said that in 2026, their combined companies plan to “begin installation and construction of the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant,” which will produce an industry-measured 50 megawatts of electric power, subject to regulatory approval.
TAE plans to scale up future fusion power plants to produce between 350 and 500 megawatts of energy, Binderbauer said.. A conventional fission nuclear power plant can produce about two to three times as much power, depending on the reactor.
“Fusion power will be the most dramatic energy breakthrough since the advent of commercial nuclear power in the 1950s,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said in a phone interview Thursday. he said.
“An innovation that will lower energy prices, increase supply, ensure America’s artificial intelligence superiority, revitalize America’s manufacturing base and strengthen national defense,” Nunes said.
Trump Media’s investment comes at a time when the AI boom has utilities scrambling to find enough power to accelerate the build-out of data centers across the country.
In October, the Department of Energy launched a national strategy to accelerate the commercialization of fusion.
“Together with TAE, we will have the capital and public market access to scale TAE’s vision of putting abundant nuclear energy on the grid,” Nunes said. he said.
Nunes and Binderbauer, a former Assembly member from California, plan to serve as co-CEOs of the combined company.
“Nunes will continue to manage all operations of the Trump Media brand. Binderbauer will manage TAE Technologies,” he said in a news release.
TAE, whose board members include Ernest Moniz, who served as Secretary of Energy in the Obama administration, was founded in 1998.
Since then, the company has raised more than $1.3 billion in private capital from investors in a dozen financing rounds. Strip and the alphabet Google.
When asked why TAE did not make a deal with one of its previous investors, Binderbauer said Trump Media acted quickly and boldly.
“We have these partnerships, but that’s what’s moving forward,” Binderbauer said.
“I just have to boil it down to such a simple factor. That’s really the difference,” he said. “We will build a power plant. We will take this technology to a commercial level.”
Binderbauer said TAE has not yet made siting decisions or reached purchase agreements for the facilities it plans.
“We’re in the process of doing that,” he said. “We’ll announce it when we’re ready, but we have a game plan.”
Michael Schwab will serve as chairman of the combined company’s nine-member board.
Donald Trump Jr., Nunes and Binderbauer will serve as directors. The other five members have not yet been elected.
