United States President Donald Trump is getting into the fusion power business through a $6bn merger of his social media firm and Google-backed TAE Technologies, just days after industry representatives urged federal funding.

The all-stock deal, announced on Thursday, is an ambitious bet on the power boom spurred by artificial intelligence (AI) data centres and adds to the Trump family’s growing roster of diverse ventures from cryptocurrency to real estate holdings and mobile services.

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Growing electricity needs of the technology industry have in recent months revived interest in nuclear power, including restarting fully shuttered reactors, expanding existing plants and signing contracts for future small modular reactors.

But despite decades of global efforts, nuclear fusion, often seen as a clean and reliable power source, has yet to produce a commercially viable reactor.

TAE has been working with Google Research for more than a decade on fusion science, and its backers include Chevron and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas.

The company, founded in 1998, also operates an energy-storage business and a life sciences unit that develops biologically targeted radiotherapy to treat cancer.

Shareholders of both companies will own about 50 percent of the combined entity after the deal closes in mid-2026. Trump Media and Technology Group will be the holding company for businesses including the Truth Social platform, TAE Power Solutions and TAE Life Sciences.

‘Major political support’

Trump Media shares jumped nearly 33 percent in early trading, drawing traction on Stocktwits, a social media hub for retail investors. The money-losing company’s stock has declined nearly 70 percent this year.

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“TAE will also clearly have major political support from President Trump in our view,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said.

After his return to office this year, Trump’s close relatives have pursued ventures leveraging his political power and policy shifts. The Trump family has, for instance, amassed billions in crypto-related wealth as the president throws his support behind digital financial assets.

Companies and physicists at national laboratories have been trying for decades to foster fusion reactions, in which light atoms are forced together under extreme temperatures to release huge amounts of energy, a process that fuels the sun.

Big hurdles to commercialising fusion include getting more energy out of a reaction than what goes into it and developing plants that can withstand streams of fusion reactions to power the grid.

TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer and other fusion company leaders met US Energy Department officials this month, weeks after the department formed its first fusion office.

Terms of the deal

The company, which has raised more than $1.3bn in private funding, is aiming to develop and sell next‑generation neutral beam systems for fusion and related applications in a more cost‑effective manner.

Trump Media has agreed to provide up to $200m in cash to TAE at signing and $100m more upon the initial filing of the registration. The deal has been approved by the companies’ boards.

The two companies plan to begin construction on the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant next year. Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes, the Republican congressman who resigned in 2021 to become the CEO of the company, said in an investor call the companies plan to “quickly seek approvals” after the deal closes, with plans to look for a site for the plant expected to begin by the end of 2026.

Nunes did not provide any further details on the investor call that lasted just eight minutes.

He will be co-CEO of the new company, along with Binderbauer. The combined company will have a nine-member board, including Nunes, Binderbauer and Donald Trump Junior.

Trump Media, which mainly generates revenue from advertising on the Truth Social platform, has consistently clocked losses since its inception. It posted a decline in revenue and a loss of $54.8m in the third quarter ended September.