Helion, a nuclear fusion startup backed by Silicon Valley heavyweights, has sparked industry debate with its ambitious promises of commercializing the technology within three years.
Sam Altman‘s $5.4B Nuclear Fusion Startup Baffles Science Community
Helion, a 12-year-old startup backed by Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, and Reid Hoffman, has garnered significant attention from Silicon Valley heavyweights for its ambitious promises of commercializing nuclear fusion energy.
The company has recently secured a massive $425 million Series F funding round, valuing it at $5.4 billion. According to David Kirtley, co-founder and CEO of Helion, the capital infusion will accelerate the construction of the world’s first fusion power plant and subsequent plants.
Nuclear fusion technology, which combines two atoms to form a larger one, releasing vast amounts of energy in the process, has yet to be commercialized. While Helion aims to achieve this milestone within the next three years, other fusion companies have estimated decade-long timelines. However, scientists are less optimistic about the company’s prospects.
Nuclear fusion is a process where atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, releasing vast amounts of energy in the process.
This reaction powers stars and holds the key to limitless clean energy on Earth.
Scientists have been working to replicate this process using magnetic confinement and inertial confinement methods.
Currently, experiments like ITER and NIF aim to achieve sustained fusion reactions.
If successful, nuclear fusion could provide a nearly inexhaustible source of electricity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change.
‘I even think ten years is very ambitious,’ said Saskia Mordijck, a physics professor at The College of William & Mary. ‘They don’t share any information, they don’t publish, they don’t provide data, they don’t share scientific advances.’
Helion has attracted significant public attention due to Altman’s involvement, with the OpenAI CEO investing $375 million in the company in 2021. In a blog post at the time, Altman described Helion as ‘by far the most promising approach to fusion I’ve ever seen.’ Two years later, Helion unveiled a power purchase agreement with Microsoft, aiming to deliver electricity from a fusion plant by 2028.
The latest funding round saw participation from repeat investors like Altman and Facebook co-founder Dustin Muskovitz, as well as new participants such as Lightspeed Venture Partners and SoftBank‘s Vision 2 Fund. According to Kirtley, the capital infusion will enable Helion to build capacitors, magnets, and semiconductors ‘much faster than we have been able to before.’
However, the science community remains skeptical about Helion’s promises. ‘There should be a lot of responsibility when you give a date,’ said Mordijck. ‘I do worry that—and it’s not just Helion—when all these companies promise specific dates and these dates are not being met, then the public will become skeptical because they will feel that they’re being lied to.
