Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), President Donald Trump’s social media company, announced Thursday that it will merge with TAE Technologies, a Southern California-based company that has been chasing the dream of fusion power for nearly 30 years.
The all-stock deal, valued at more than $6 billion, expands Trump Media’s presence into the nascent fusion power sector as the AI boom continues and data centers seek more power.
Fusion industry officials expressed curiosity about the deal and expressed concern about a potential conflict of interest with the U.S. Department of Energy. Last week, industry representatives met with Department of Energy officials to urge them to help direct billions of dollars to fusion projects. Also earlier this year, the Department of Energy announced a new roadmap to guide commercial efforts in this area, but did not provide any new funding at the same time.
TMTG is the parent company of Truth Social. Truth Social is a microblogging platform that was launched after the president was banned from platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook in the wake of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. At the launch, the president called the companies “rivals of the liberal media consortium” and said he wanted to “fight back against Big Tech.”
TMTG went public last year through a merger with a special acquisition purpose company (SPAC). This is a method used by private companies that want to raise capital quickly but are not yet mature enough to take the traditional IPO route. TMTG reported a loss of $54.8 million on revenue of $972,900 for the quarter ended September 30, 2025.
Although Truth Social and its streaming platform failed to generate significant revenue, TMTG still managed to accumulate $3.1 billion in assets, primarily through cryptocurrency investments and partnerships.
TMTG CEO Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman, said his company’s acquisition of TAE “cements America’s global energy dominance for generations.” The companies said they plan to begin building and constructing “the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant (50MWe)” next year, and have plans to build more fusion power plants expected to generate between 350 and 500 megawatts of electricity.
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However, the future path of fusion power generation remains unclear.
To date, only one experimental device has proven that a controlled fusion reaction can generate more electricity than it consumes. Several other companies, including Bill Gates-backed Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Sam Altman-backed Helion, are in the race to bring fusion power to the power grid in the early 2030s.
If one or more fusion startups succeed, it will be possible to use only hydrogen isotopes filtered from seawater to provide clean, continuous electricity to the grid. Inside a fusion reactor, these isotopes are heated and compressed until they become plasma. When particles in the plasma collide, they combine to form new, heavier atoms and at the same time release huge amounts of heat, which can be recovered to generate electricity.
TAE has been working on the development of various fusion devices since the late 1990s. The company has raised nearly $2 billion in total, including a recent $150 million round from existing investors including Google, Chevron Technology Ventures, and New Enterprise. The company is valued at about $1.8 billion, according to PitchBook.
Over the years, TAE has struggled to make different designs work. Its latest effort uses the magnetic field generated by the rotating plasma to stabilize the plasma itself. The particle beam hits the outside of the plasma cloud and helps it rotate.
Meanwhile, TAE has also created a new division focused on life sciences. The company sells a version of its particle accelerator as a radiation treatment for cancer.
Following the merger, Mr. Nunez and TAE CEO Dr. Michelle Binderbauer will serve as co-CEOs of the combined company.
Updated at 12:05 p.m. ET: Added comments from fusion industry stakeholders.
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