Trump Media announces $6 billion merger with nuclear fusion company
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) on Thursday announced a $6 billion merger agreement with nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies, forming a partnership between President Donald Trump’s media firm and a next-generation energy production company.
Via his trust, Trump is TMTG's largest stakeholder. The trust is managed by his son, Donald Trump Jr.
Shares of Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, soared 35% in early trading on Thursday.
Nuclear fusion generates energy by combining atoms – the same process by which the sun creates energy – using fuel sources that are "plentiful and easily accessible" and that "are not expected to produce high activity or long-lived nuclear waste," according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
While fusion has been achieved on Earth, the technology does not yet work at commercial scale and there are no commercial fusion reactors currently in use. Although Wednesday's announcement states that "TAE has built and safely operated five fusion reactors," those reactors are research devices that are part of the company's efforts to achieve commercial-scale fusion. Many experts also are skeptical that fusion reactors will be a viable energy source anytime soon.
Fusion has garnered increased interest in recent years due to the enormous energy demand spurred by artificial intelligence. Google, which offers an AI chatbot Gemini, is among the investors in TAE Technologies.
Devin Nunes, the chairman and CEO of TMTG, will serve as co-CEO of the merged company, alongside TAE CEO and Director Michl Binderbauer, the announcement said.
The merged company will feature a nine-member board of directors, including Nunes, Binderbauer and Trump Jr., according to the announcement.
"Trump Media & Technology Group built uncancellable infrastructure to secure free expression online for Americans, and now we’re taking a big step forward toward a revolutionary technology that will cement America’s global energy dominance for generations," Nunes said in a statement.
Under the terms of the agreement, shareholders of TMTG and TAE Technologies would each own about half of the combined company after the deal closes, which is expected to happen by the middle of next year, the announcement said.
The merged company aims to begin construction on the first utility-scale nuclear fusion power plant in 2026, the announcement added.
