In a move that’s set the energy and technology worlds abuzz, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) announced on December 18, 2025, a surprise all-stock merger with TAE Technologies, a pioneering nuclear fusion company. The deal, valued at more than $6 billion, will create one of the first publicly traded fusion companies in the United States—a bold bet on a technology that, if successful, could revolutionize the world’s energy landscape.
News of the merger sent Trump Media’s (DJT) share price soaring 35% in early trading, underscoring the market’s appetite for a breakthrough in clean energy as electricity demand surges, especially from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. According to CNN, the combined entity will be equally owned by shareholders of Trump Media and TAE, and aims to begin construction as soon as 2026 on the world’s first fusion reaction capable of producing electricity at utility scale.
Fusion energy has long been considered the holy grail of clean power. Unlike conventional nuclear fission, which splits atoms and generates long-lived radioactive waste, fusion seeks to replicate the process that powers the sun by fusing hydrogen atoms under intense heat and pressure. This releases enormous amounts of energy without the legacy of radioactive waste, using fuels derived from hydrogen—one of the universe’s most abundant elements. As CNN notes, fusion could provide a near-limitless, carbon-free source of electricity, if the technology can be scaled up beyond laboratory experiments.
TAE Technologies, founded in 1998 and headquartered in Southern California, has spent more than 25 years developing its approach to fusion. The company is backed by some of the world’s biggest names in technology and finance, including Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Chevron, Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab, and several family offices, according to Yahoo Finance. Over its history, TAE has raised about $1.3 billion, building and operating five fusion reactors and achieving major technical breakthroughs along the way.
"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 quoted by CNN.
The merger is also about more than just science—it’s about capital and political clout. Under the terms of the deal, Trump Media will provide $300 million in cash for TAE’s plans, with $200 million up front and another $100 million to follow. While this is only a fraction of the billions TAE will need to build a commercial-scale fusion plant, the partnership gives the company access to public markets and, potentially, to even greater funding. As TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer told CNN, "It’s a multi-billion dollar undertaking. The velocity you can get the capital is differentiating. If I raise $2 billion over five years I can’t build the plant sufficiently fast."
Staying private, even with deep-pocketed investors, is no longer enough for TAE’s ambitions. "Sometimes you get lucky and you meet the right people," Binderbauer said of the deal with Trump Media. He also addressed the prospect of increased political scrutiny due to the Trump connection: "I’m not looking for anything special. 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."
The fusion sector as a whole has seen a surge in interest and investment in recent years, especially after a 2022 breakthrough at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where researchers produced more energy from a controlled fusion reaction than was required to initiate it. This achievement, though still at the laboratory stage, reignited hopes that fusion could soon make the leap to commercial viability. According to the Fusion Industry Association, fusion companies raised more than $2.6 billion in the first seven months of 2025 alone.
TAE says it is poised to start construction of the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant in 2026, pending regulatory approvals. The initial facility is expected to generate about 50 megawatts of electricity, with longer-term plans for additional plants producing between 350 and 500 megawatts each. Binderbauer told CNN that it will take "five-ish" years from the start of construction to begin producing electricity—a timeline that could see fusion power on the grid by the early 2030s.
Trump Media’s foray into fusion marks its most ambitious diversification yet. The company, launched by former President Donald Trump in 2021 as a counterweight to Big Tech, has struggled to gain traction with its Truth Social platform and has recently pushed into artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and asset management. Despite generating little revenue, Trump Media went public in 2024 through a merger with a blank-check company, raising billions. Its balance sheet now includes $1.5 billion in digital assets and $550 million in other short-term investments, according to CNN. However, that’s dwarfed by the resources of its new partners—Alphabet alone has nearly $96 billion in cash and marketable securities.
The leadership of the combined company will reflect its dual heritage. Devin Nunes, CEO of Trump Media, and Michl Binderbauer, CEO of TAE, will serve as co-CEOs. Donald Trump Jr. and Nunes will join the nine-member board, which will also include Michael B. Schwab, founder and managing director of Big Sky Partners, as chairman.
Political implications are hard to ignore. The merger could give TAE Technologies significant influence in Washington, particularly if the company seeks federal grants, low-interest loans, or regulatory approvals. Yet the deal could also make TAE a lightning rod for controversy, especially given the polarized views surrounding Trump and his business ventures. As CNN points out, any government support for the project is likely to come under intense scrutiny.
For many observers, however, the real story is the potential for fusion to address America’s looming energy crisis. AI data centers, which require enormous amounts of electricity, are driving unprecedented demand. "It’s an arms race with China," Wedbush’s Dan Ives told CNN. "The US is 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 there’s a US answer for fusion, it’s TAE. The biggest thing missing is capital."
Devin Nunes, on a call with investors, did not mince words about the stakes: "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."
As the fusion race heats up, the eyes of the world—and the markets—will be watching to see if this high-profile merger can finally bring the promise of limitless, clean energy from the realm of science fiction to the reality of the power grid.
