OpenAI in Talks with Helion to Secure Fusion Energy

Artificial intelligence (AI) group OpenAI is reportedly discussing buying electricity from Helion Energy, the fusion startup company based in Everett, Washington. Sources told POWER that a deal would enable OpenAI to be guaranteed part of Helion's power generation, with as much as 5 GW available by 2030 and up to 50 GW by 2035. Helion in February announced that its Polaris prototype has set new industry benchmarks, becoming the first privately developed fusion energy machine to demonstrate measurable deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion and achieve plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius. The company at the time said the milestones “mark significant breakthroughs in Helion’s vision to make commercially viable fusion energy a reality and are firsts for the private fusion industry.” “What makes this deal significant is that it reframes AI as an energy-intensive industrial system rather than just a software platform," said Siddardha Vangala, senior AI Platform Engineer & Enterprise AI Systems Architect with MasTec Advanced Technologies. Vangala told POWER, “As large-scale AI models grow, data center demand is rising rapidly, and companies are beginning to secure dedicated power sources years in advance. If fusion technology becomes commercially viable, partnerships like this could define the long-term infrastructure strategy of the AI industry.” Microsoft in 2023 said it had signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Helion to buy electricity from the company as soon as 2028 in what was considered the first PPA tied to fusion energy.
POWER is at the forefront of coverage for research and development of fusion energy. That includes a recent special report featuring several of the leading companies in the space. Read "Research Brings Results in Search for ‘Holy Grail’ of Clean Energy", and find more content in our archives.
[caption id="attachment_250637" align="alignnone" width="640"]
Polaris is Helion Energy's 7th-generation nuclear fusion prototype, designed to demonstrate the feasibility of generating net electricity from fusion. The machine is a Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) plasma generator, which reaches high temperatures and focuses on a smaller, pulsed, non-thermal approach to achieve commercial power generation. Courtesy: Helion Energy[/caption]
Notable Investors
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is an investor in Helion, which was founded in 2013. Altman's stake in the company has not been disclosed, though it's been called "sizable." Other investors in Helion include Softbank, Mithril Capital (led by entrepreneur and PayPal founder Peter Thiel), and Meta, including Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. Altman led Helion's $500-million Series E funding round in 2021. The company also closed a $425-million funding round in January of last year. Altman on Monday said he has stepped down from the board of directors of Helion Energy, though he remains on the OpenAI board. Altman said holding both positions was untenable. Altman in a post on social media platform X (the former Twitter) said he continues to have a financial interest in Helion, but will recuse himself from any negotiations around deals that involve the company. Altman at the time of the Microsoft deal in 2023 said, “My vision of the future ... is that if we can drive the cost intelligence and the cost of energy way, way down, the quality of life for all of us will increase incredibly. If we can make AI systems more and more powerful for less and less money—same thing we are trying to do with energy at Helion—I view these two projects as spiritually very aligned.” Other tech companies also have signed deals to secure power from fusion. Google in 2025 signed agreements with Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems.