Fusing Nuclear Power and Politics: Trump Media's Bold $6B Move to Merge with TAE
The combination of Truth Social and nuclear fusion probably wasn’t on the consensus political and financial matchmaking card for even the savviest energy industry follower this holiday season.
But it’s the truth and social media is all over it. The presidentially owned Trump Media & Technology Group announced Thursday that it plans to merge with nuclear fusion technology developer TAE Technologies in a deal estimated at $6 billion in value.
The merger, which puts President Trump’s Truth Social ownership smack in the middle of an energy sector also regulated by the federal government, is aimed at meeting the future power needs of the artificial intelligence (AI) data factory movement. Several research firms have predicted that coming data center and AI energy needs will exceed 125 GW of generation, which could necessitate trillions of dollars in new investment whether it is grid power, co-located off-grid or microgrids.
The Trump Media and TAE Technologies transaction is expected to close by mid-2026, pending regulatory approvals. Many nuclear fusion experiments are going on at U.S. national laboratories and private startups, but none have achieved close to commercial-scale net energy gain yet.
The transaction will “create one of the world’s first publicly traded fusion companies,” reads the Globe Newswire release about the merger. “In 2026, the combined company plans to site and begin construction on the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant (50 MW) subject to required approvals.”
Tapping into energy breakthrough for the ages
The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission would be among the primary federal overseers of such a project. And the race is on among numerous other private companies to build facilities despite the lack of commercial fusion breakthroughs yet.
Devin Nunes, the former Congressman and now CEO of Trump Media, had a response for that.
“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 our manufacturing base and bolster national defense,” Nunes said in a statement. “TMTG brings the capital and public market access to quickly move TAE’s proven technology to commercial viability.”
About the prospective merging companies
California-based TAE Technologies was previously known as Tri Alpha Energy and is focused on aneutronic fusion power. Unlike nuclear fission, which splits atoms to create energy and generates all of the commercial nuclear energy currently, fusion unites neutrons in a sort of plasma to achieve what is theoretically an unlimited supply of future carbon-free power.
Details about TAE ownership indicate financing from venture capitals and banking firms such as Goldman Sachs. The company’s website was down at the time of writing this story, perhaps due to web traffic after the announcement of the Trump merger.
Trump Media & Technology, meanwhile, was founded in 2021 and went public three years later. Known by the ticker symbol DJT—the president’s initials—Trump Media is currently trading for about $14 a share. The share price is nearly 40% above what yesterday’s trading average was, and it brings the company’s market capitalization close to $4 billion as of midday Thursday. The media company lost nearly $55 million in the most recent quarter, according to reports from New Republic and other media outlets.
The president owns the largest individual share of stocks in Trump Media at about 41%, according to reports.
The DOE’s nuclear fusion roadmap of 2025
The Trump Administration has been enthusiastically promoting growth of the nuclear energy sector, including small modular reactors, through funding, regulatory fast-tracking and encouraging private investment. These actions include several executive orders and a pilot program around SMR nuclear.
In October, the administration-led DOE released a Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap, which aims to chart a course for federal support of the fusion energy industry.
The DOE fusion roadmap says the strategy was developed with the help of 600 researchers, engineers and industry stakeholders. National labs such as Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos (LANL) have collaborated on fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility, creating a so-called “self-sustaining feedback loop” of “burning plasma” to achieve an energy yield at 2.4+-0.09 megajoules of energy earlier this year.
“This shows how well our designs can create fusion ignition conditions to address key stockpile stewardship questions,” said Los Alamos physicist Joseph Smidt, the co-director of the LANL inertial confinement fusion program.
Other private entities such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Helion, Thea Energy and TypeOne are working with utility or commercial customers such as TVA, Google, Microsoft and others. Google also has been an investor in TAE Technologies.
Reshaping the Future:
Conversation About Evolution of Data Centers, Healthcare & Microgrids
Quickchat Video with Cummins Inc. AI Expert Dinesh Balaji Ramaraj
About the Author
Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor
Managing Editor
For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].
Rod Walton has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World.
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.