OpenAI eyes fusion power
OpenAI is in advanced talks to secure up to 50 GW of clean fusion power from Helion by 2035, and Sam Altman has stepped down from Helion’s board to avoid conflicts—moves that would lock in massive, cheap compute for training at hyperscale. If it closes, this is a strategic bet that compute supply and cost will be central to future AI service competitiveness. (techtimes.com)
Sam Altman posted on X that he will retain a financial interest in Helion but will recuse himself from any deal negotiations after stepping down from Helion’s board, and Helion CEO David Kirtley confirmed Altman’s departure in a separate X post. (money.usnews.com) Reporting by Axios and follow-ups in TechCrunch say the commercial framework under discussion would allocate a fixed share of Helion’s future output to a single customer, a structural detail that would formalize long-term offtake rather than ad-hoc spot purchases. (axios.com) Helion’s existing commercial commitments include a power purchase agreement with Microsoft that targets delivery from Helion’s first plant in 2028 and a post‑ramp target of roughly 50 MW of generation for that facility, per Helion’s May 2023 announcement and BusinessWire coverage. (businesswire.com) Helion closed a $425 million Series F in January 2025 that pushed the company’s post‑money valuation into the low‑single‑digit billions, bringing total investment in the firm to over $1 billion, and Sam Altman previously led a larger 2021 round with a personal $375 million commitment. (helionenergy.com)(cnbc.com) Technical progress at Helion has accelerated: the company reported that its Polaris prototype reached plasma temperatures reported around 150 million degrees Celsius in February 2026, and Helion’s public materials describe a pulsed field‑reversed‑configuration approach that directly extracts electricity from fusion events. (techcrunch.com)(helionenergy.com) Industry coverage notes the gap between prototype milestones and mass deployment, with Helion’s construction approvals for its Orion plant in Central Washington and statements that the facility aims to feed electrons to the grid before the end of the decade marking the company’s earliest commercial timeline. (helionenergy.com)(geekwire.com)
