Helion raises $425M to help build a fusion reactor for Microsoft | TechCrunch
Helion raises $425M to help build a fusion reactor for Microsoft
Helion raises $425M to help build a fusion reactor for Microsoft | TechCrunch
Helion raises $425M to help build a fusion reactor for Microsoft
11 Comments
From the article
>Few fusion startups have been as closely watched as Helion. The 12-year-old company is backed by Sam Altman, rumored to be in talks with OpenAI, and has a deal to supply Microsoft with electricity by 2028 — years earlier than its competitors.
>The company’s unorthodox approach to fusion power and relative secrecy has earned it plenty of fans — and critics. But don’t count its investors among the naysayers.
>Helion announced Tuesday a $425 million Series F raise that pushed its valuation $5.245 billion. The startup also flipped the switch last month on its latest prototype, Polaris, which it anticipates will be the first fusion reactor to generate electricity.
>Polaris, Helion’s seventh prototype, sits inside a 27,000 square-foot building in Everett, Washington. It took more than three years to build, which is quick by fusion industry standards. But to hit its ambitious 2028 deadline for Microsoft, the startup will have to move even faster on its commercial-scale power plant.
If Microsoft wants a fusion reactor they should just fund it themselves
lol so, let me get this straight, assuming this works, the only motivation here is to power more ai centric data centers and not *check notes* solve climate change ? got it.
iirc Helion wants to deliver electricity directly to the grid from its reactor without the need for a separate thermal cycle (steam turbine).
They are also using a different fuel formula that seems to be more sustainable and attainable.
Worth looking into if you haven’t heard of them before.
“It looks like you’re trying to build a fusion reactor”
Dude you can’t even build a couch for that money anymore. $7 trillion for ASI. Sama said it like a year ago
“But don’t count its investors among the naysayers.”
Yes, that’s how that works. The people investing are not naysayers. Thank goodness they added that sentence, it really gives important context.
Cool [video](https://youtu.be/_bDXXWQxK38?si=c94R0l085JIDgPse) I watched about them a long time ago.
And then[here’s](https://youtu.be/3vUPhsFoniw?si=ebsE726n968bS1yJ) the dissent response from another channel.
Correct me if I’m wrong but that seems nowhere close to enough for Fusion let alone Fision
Reminds me of back in my hometown when I visited Wendelstein 7x for the local newspaper. Saw some very halflife like things there! (scientists and elevators mostly)
What kind of profit would a fusion reactor make for the company that discovers it first?……$1 billion a year?….