The startup Helion wants to build the first fusion power plant – and thereby revolutionize the energy market.
Too good to be true: clean, unlimited and almost free energy. That’s exactly what the fusion startup Helion is planning – and has now raised $465 million for it. Supported by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, the goal is clear: to build the first functioning fusion power plant.
Helion is valued at $15.5 billion in the new financing round. In total, the company has raised around $1.5 billion in capital. The round was led by Thrive Capital, joined by Lightspeed, SoftBank Vision and Mithril.
The timing is no coincidence: Helion is currently working flat out on “Orion”, its first fusion power plant. The project: Electricity should flow into the network as early as 2028 – delivered primarily to Microsoft. The tech group had already contractually secured the energy for 2023.
Another way to merge
Helion chooses a special approach: the company uses magnetic fields to control the fusion process – and thus generate electricity directly from these magnets. This means: When the plasma expands in the reactor, it pushes against the magnetic fields. This movement should be immediately converted into electrical energy.
The majority of other fusion startups also rely on heating plasma to extreme temperatures. The resulting heat is then converted into electricity using steam turbines.
The advantage of Helion’s strategy: fewer detours, more efficiency. However, this technology is also more difficult to implement.
Big bets, big doubts
This is precisely why experts would doubt whether Helion’s approach works in practice. One reason: The company is unlikely to publish any scientific studies. This makes their theory difficult to test.
CEO David Kirtley says: “We don’t want to theorize nuclear fusion, we just want to build it.” The results of the machines would ultimately speak for themselves.
Helion is not alone, the merger industry is booming. In the past few months, numerous startups have been able to raise three-digit millions. Investors would bet on a possible breakthrough – despite the long development times.
The promise is enormous: If the technology is successful, fusion could provide long-term energy from almost inexhaustible sources such as seawater. This is particularly attractive for tech companies with their growing electricity needs due to AI models and data centers. Nevertheless, many experts do not expect the first commercial systems to appear until the mid-2030s.
