Sam Altman-backed fusion startup Helion in talks with OpenAI
The deal would commit 12.5% of Helion's future fusion power to fuel OpenAI's massive AI compute needs.
Helion Energy, the fusion startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is reportedly in early-stage negotiations to supply power directly to OpenAI. According to Axios, the deal would guarantee OpenAI 12.5% of Helion's future electricity production, targeting a massive 5 gigawatts by 2030 and scaling to 50 gigawatts by 2035. This follows a similar 2023 power purchase agreement Helion signed with Microsoft, OpenAI's primary investor and cloud provider. The scale of the proposed commitment suggests Helion is confident it can rapidly deploy its technology, requiring it to build and install 800 of its 50-megawatt reactors by 2030 and an additional 7,200 by 2035 to meet its targets.
Helion is pursuing a distinct technical path in the crowded fusion race. While most competitors aim to harvest heat to drive steam turbines, Helion's reactor design uses magnetic fields to directly convert the energy from fusion reactions into electricity. The company's current Polaris prototype has already generated plasmas at 150 million degrees Celsius, nearing the 200 million degrees required for commercial operation. Although Altman has reportedly recused himself from the talks and stepped down as Helion's board chair to avoid conflicts of interest, his influence in connecting his AI and energy ventures is clear. This potential deal underscores a critical trend: the voracious energy appetite of frontier AI models is driving tech giants to secure long-term, clean power contracts years in advance.
- The deal would commit 12.5% of Helion's power to OpenAI, targeting 5GW by 2030 and 50GW by 2035.
- Helion's unique reactor design uses magnets to directly convert fusion energy, bypassing traditional steam turbines.
- The talks highlight the massive energy demands of AI, pushing companies to secure clean power a decade ahead.
Why It Matters
AI's exponential growth is constrained by energy; fusion could provide the clean, massive-scale power required for future models.