Trump Media to merge with nuclear fusion company that wants to power AI

The parent company of President Donald Trump's Truth Social media platform is merging with a fusion power company, an unusual pairing of the Trump name with a futuristic clean energy venture that aims to power the next wave of artificial intelligence. Trump Media & Technology announced its merger with TAE Technologies in an all-stock deal that the companies said Thursday is valued at more than $6 billion.

The combined company says it plans to find a site and begin construction next year on the ''world's first utility-scale fusion power plant,'' with aims to provide the electricity needed for artificial intelligence.

Nuclear fusion is seen as a promising solution to climate change caused by burning fossil fuels, but one that is a long way off compared to today's clean technologies like wind and solar. It will need huge investment as well as regulation to advance, which makes Trump's ties a major conflict, said Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration.

''He's jumping into this industry just like he jumped into cryptocurrency a couple of years ago,'' Painter said. ''Just as the United States government is gonna get all involved in it. And it's so obvious that there's a huge conflict of interest.''

Devin Nunes, the Republican congressman who resigned in 2021 to become the CEO of Trump Media, will be co-CEO of the new company with TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology, the parent company of Truth Social, have tumbled 70% this year but jumped 34% in afternoon trading Thursday.

Backed by Google and other investors, TAE is a private company and the merger with Trump Media would create one of the first publicly traded nuclear fusion companies.

TAE focuses on nuclear fusion, a technology that combines two light atomic nuclei to form a single heavier one. It releases enormous amount of energy, a process that occurs on the sun and other stars, according to the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency.

TAE and Trump Media shareholders will each own approximately 50% of the combined company.

Trump is by far the largest stakeholder in Trump Media, owning 41% of all outstanding shares.

In October, the U.S. Department of Energy released what it called a ''road map'' for fusion technology, with the aim of fostering ''a burgeoning fusion private sector industry in the U.S. toward maturity on the most rapid timeline.'' A number of tech companies, including Google, Microsoft and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have shown interest in fusion technology as a way of powering the energy-hungry data centers needed to build and run their AI products.

Andrew Holland, chief executive officer of the Fusion Industry Association, said Thursday that a new source of funding and the creation of a publicly traded nuclear fusion company ''can only be positive'' because any technological breakthrough is a function of time and resources.

''It's exciting when any of our member companies raise new capital and secure their pathway towards building what is our ultimate goal, a fusion-powered future,'' Holland said.

Fusion is the technology that can meet the vast energy demands of AI, Holland said. He said that is because fusion is clean, safe, sustainable energy that, when commercialized, will be able to scale.

Prior to this deal, $10 billion has been raised globally by private fusion companies racing to make fusion commercially viable for the first time, Holland said. The vast majority of the fundraising and development is happening in the United States.

Holland said the Trump administration has said it strongly supports fusion, but has yet to make any new financial support available.

In the association's surveys of the industry, companies are saying they expect to see fusion energy on the electric grid in the 2030s, with most saying they expect it in the first half of the 2030s, Holland said.