President Donald Trump’s social media company will provide the capital needed to bring TAE Technologies’ first fusion power plant online in the United States by 2031, TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer told CNBC on Thursday.
Binderbauer spoke shortly after his privately held company and Trump Media and Technology Group announced plans for an all-stock merger valued at more than $6 billion.
The CEO said the deal would combine Trump Media’s “fortress balance sheet” with TAE’s technologies.
“We’ve got capability and technology to really scale this,” Binderbauer told CNBC.
“We’ve got the engineering prowess to do that, but the last piece of the puzzle was the capital,” he said. “Now, you’re marrying capital with that underlying base of technical capability.”
Fusion is a form of nuclear power that could one day generate enormous amounts of energy by fusing atoms. The process, which powers the Sun, does not produce the long-life radioactive waste that is the byproduct of fission, the process created in traditional nuclear reactors.
Despite decades of research, scientists and companies have so far been unable to commercialize fusion technology. Fusion ignition was only achieved for the first time in a laboratory setting in December 2022.
But Binderbauer said he is bullish on his company’s prospects to reliably generate — and sell — fusion power, now that it can tap funding from Trump Media.
Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social app, will invest up to $200 million in TAE with another $100 million coming after filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Binderbauer said.
Trump Media has meager revenue relative to its market capitalization, which was above $4 billion on Thursday, and to its balance sheet.
For the third quarter that ended on Sept. 30, Trump Media had financial assets of $3.1 billion, which included cash and digital assets, the company announced last month.
Trump Media for that quarter reported a net loss of $54.8 million, with sales of just under $973,000.
TAE and Trump Media said that their merged company in 2026 plans, subject to regulatory approval, to “site and begin construction on the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant,” which would generate 50 megawatts of electrical power, an industry measurement.
TAE has plans to scale up future fusion power plants to generate between 350 to 500 megwatts of power, Binderbauer said. A traditional fission nuclear power plant can generate about two to three times that power, depending on the reactor.
“Fusion power will be the most dramatic energy breakthrough since the onset of commercial nuclear energy in the 1950s,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said on a call Thursday.
“An innovation that will lower energy prices, boost supply, ensure America’s AI supremacy and revive America’s manufacturing base and bolster national defense,” Nunes said.
Trump Media’s investment comes as the artificial intelligence boom has left utilities scrambling to find enough power to fuel the build-out of data centers across the country.
In October, the Energy Department launched a national strategy in October to accelerate the commercialization of fusion.
Nunes said, “Together with TAE, we will have the capital and public market access to scale TAE’s vision to put abundant nuclear energy on the grid.”
Nunes, who is a former House member from California, and Binderbauer plan to serve as co-CEOs of the merged company.
“Nunes will continue to lead all Trump Media brand operations. Binderbauer will manage TAE Technologies,” a news release said.
TAE, whose board members include Ernest Moniz, who served as Energy secretary in the Obama administration, was founded in 1998.
Since then, the company has raised more than $1.3 billion in private capital in a dozen rounds of funding, from investors such as Chevron and Alphabet’s Google.
Asked why TAE did not strike a deal with one of its prior investors, Binderbauer said Trump Media moved quickly and boldly.
“We have these partnerships, but this is the one that moved,” Binderbauer said.
“I just have to reduce it to that simple sort of factor. That’s really the difference,” he said. “We’re going to build a power plant. We’re going to take this technology to the commercial level.”
TAE has not yet made siting decisions or reached offtake agreements for its planned plants, Binderbauer said.
“We’re in the process on that,” the CEO said. “We’re going to announce that when we’re ready with that, but we have a game plan.”
Michael Schwab will serve as chairman of the combined company’s nine-member board.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., Nunes, and Binderbauer serve as directors. The five other members are yet to be chosen.
