Trump Media targets nuclear fusion through merger with TAE

WASHINGTON – Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind Truth Social, is getting into nuclear fusion.

The company said on Dec 18 it will merge with TAE Technologies, a closely held fusion developer founded in 1998, in a transaction valued at more than US$6 billion (S$7.74 billion).

Shareholders of each company will own about 50 per cent of the combined business after the all-stock deal is completed, Trump Media said in a statement.

The deal marks another dramatic pivot for the company linked to the family of President Donald Trump, which has previously diversified into offering financial products
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Trump Media shares jumped as much as 40 per cent in pre-market trading in New York.

Interest in nuclear fusion has gained momentum since the process was created in laboratory conditions for the first time in 2022
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Recreating that at a commercial scale offers the tantalising prospect of cheap and abundant power with next to no pollution, but the technical obstacles remain formidable.

The Trump Media-TAE deal will create one of the world’s first publicly traded fusion companies, according to the statement.

The combined company plans to begin construction in 2026 on the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant, subject to required approvals.

President Donald Trump’s social media company has chased a series of new businesses in 2025, including cryptocurrencies, money management and prediction markets.

But venturing into fusion is a significant departure, pushing the company even further outside the realm of social media – where it began with its platform Truth Social, created after Mr Trump was banned from Twitter in the wake of the Jan 6, 2021, insurrection.

Trump Media is unprofitable. But since it went public in 2024, the company has traded like a meme stock, with price swings that do not necessarily correlate to its underlying value, including a rally when Mr Trump was re-elected.

TAE has raised more than US$1.3 billion in equity capital since its inception from investors including Google, Chevron Technology Ventures and Goldman Sachs Group, according to the statement.

Billionaires including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos have bet on fusion startups such as Helion Energy and General Fusion.

TAE is developing a system that uses hydrogen-boron as fuel, which is relatively easy to get and not radioactive.

That is a shift from many of its rivals that are working with two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, the latter of which is both scarce and radioactive.

TAE has been working to commercialise fusion for decades, and along the way has spun off two units based on other technologies it’s developed, TAE Power Solutions in 2024, and TAE Life Sciences in 2017.

Once the deal closes, current Trump Media Chief Executive Devin Nunes and TAE boss Michl Binderbauer will serve as co-chief executives. BLOOMBERG