A $6 billion deal has put a quiet corner of Orange County on President Donald Trump’s world map.
The parent company of Trump’s Truth Social platform plans to merge with nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies of Foothill Ranch in a surprise move aimed at producing safe, nearly limitless energy.
“The TAE team and technology are battle-tested,” TAE Tech Chief Executive Michl Binderbauer told the Business Journal on Dec. 20. “The merger would deliver the capital necessary to accelerate commercial fusion at a pace no private company has yet achieved.”
Trump Media & Technology Group, which has 29 employees and is based in Sarasota, Florida, said it has agreed to invest up to $300 million in TAE Technologies, which has been working for almost 28 years to harness the same process that powers the sun.
“Transaction to create one of the world’s first publicly traded fusion companies,” the companies said in a statement announcing the deal.
The two sides say the new company, created in an all-stock transaction, will have a valuation of more than $6 billion, inclusive of debt. The deal is expected to close in 2026 following various approvals.
Besides TAE Fusion Power, which is building the reactor, the deal also includes two of its affiliates: TAE Power Solutions, which provides storage for AI data centers and TAE Life Sciences, which is investigating the use of targeted radiotherapy to treat cancer patients.
Besides Truth Social, a social media platform established after Twitter banned Trump in 2021, the company also includes Truth+, a streaming platform focusing on family-friendly live TV channels and on-demand content, and Truth.Fi, a financial services unit that includes bitcoin and protection against discrimination by financial institutions.
Upon closing, Trump Media & Technology Group will be the holding company for all six units.
Foothill in the Limelight
The surprise announcement on Dec. 18 thrust Foothill Ranch, a community that dates to the early 1990s, into the national spotlight. In addition to being the home of TAE Technologies, Foothill Ranch is also the headquarters of eyewear maker Oakley.
While the merger announcement showered attention to the community, TAE Tech’s Binderbauer says the location of the next steps in its massive research and commercial development project remains open (see articles, this page).
“Combined company expects to site and commence construction of the first utility-scale fusion power plant in 2026,” the companies said in their Dec. 18 statement.
Binderbauer expects the company to be generating the “first power” in 2031.
The tie-up comes as companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google scramble to get enough electricity to power their seemingly insatiable data centers.
Getting fusion to work has come to be called the “holy grail” of energy production. If it works on a commercial scale, the world will be on its way to having a nearly endless supply of electricity for millennia to come.
Donald Trump Jr., Devin Nunes
Privately held TAE Technologies has raised more than $1.3 billion in private capital to date from Google, Chevron Technology Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, NEA, the family offices of Addison Fischer, the Samberg family, Charles R. Schwab and others.
Founded in 1998, TAE now has more than 400 employees, including 62 Ph.D. holders. The company has been granted over 1,600 patents.
Binderbauer, himself, holds a doctorate in physics from the UCI.
Fusion produces massive amounts of energy when two atoms collide to form a heavier atom under immense heat and pressure.
That heat energy will then be sent to a steam generator, which spins a turbine that drives an electric generator, similar to how power plants operate today.
TAE built a machine called Norm that creates and controls plasma with greater efficiency.
The Truth Side
The people involved in the merged company will be familiar.
First son Donald Trump Jr. will be a board member. Current Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes, a former congressman, will serve as co-CEO with Binderbauer.
Upon closing, shareholders of each company will own approximately 50% of the combined company on a fully diluted equity basis, the companies said in a statement.
The Trump group, which has no financial analysts covering it, has an unusual financial structure.
It reported third-quarter revenue of $973,000, down 3.7% from the prior year; its net loss more than doubled to $54.8 million.
However, the company generated $15.3 million of realized income during the third quarter from option premiums associated with its bitcoin-related securities, as well as $13.4 million of interest income from other financial holdings. The company says it has $3.1 billion in financial assets, including $1 billion in cash and short-term investments. The company has a stake in the website, Crypto.com.
“Truth Media is earning significant income from its unique bitcoin strategy,” the company said in a Nov. 7 statement.
Since the stock reached a 52-week high in January of $43.46 when Trump was inaugurated as president, it’s fallen steadily to as low as $10.18. The deal, announced Dec. 18, sent the shares up as much 66% to $17.10. By press time, they traded at $13.16 and a $3.7 billion market cap (Nasdaq: DJT).
Musk Calls Fusion Quest Money Waste
TAE is one of several businesses and government-backed groups worldwide racing to provide virtually unlimited fusion energy.
It’s an industry with many skeptics.
EV automaker and space titan Elon Musk is one of the most prominent critics.
“The Sun is an enormous, free fusion reactor in the sky. It is super dumb to make tiny fusion reactors on Earth,” Musk posted on his platform X on Dec. 14.
He added: “Stop wasting money on puny little reactors, unless actively acknowledging that they are just there for your pet science project.”
The critics have underscored the long quest for fusion power.
“Since the 1950s, there’s been this quest to build a power reactor, an energy generator using fusion in the lab,” Charles Seife, a New York University journalism professor and author of the book “Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking,” was quoted as telling Slate in 2022.
He added: “Throughout that time, scientists thought that it was just a decade or two from being reality, but that keeps moving forward.”
Last January, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said there are “technical, economic, and other challenges” to fusion energy.
For Trump Media, Yorkville Securities is serving as lead financial and M&A advisor while Clear Street is serving as financial advisor and DLA Piper (U.S.) LLP is serving as a legal advisor. For TAE, Barclays is serving as financial advisor and Baker Botts LLP is serving as legal advisor.
The OC Companies Involved in Alternative Energy
Orange County is developing a reputation as a hub for companies focused on alternative energy sources rather than on traditional petroleum and coal. Here are some Orange County personalities and companies involved in the emerging field:
– Sales at Rivian Automotive Inc., the Irvine-based electric vehicle maker founded by RJ Scaringe, are expected to hit $6.9 billion this year. The company’s market cap is on an upward trajectory, having recently passed $25 billion (Nasdaq: RIVN).
– OC real estate kingpin Donald Bren has donated more than $100 million to fund the space-based Solar Power Project at the California Institute of Technology. The idea is the sun’s solar power would be captured in space and beamed to Earth.
– Newport Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. has a $469 million market cap by marketing renewable natural gas distilled from dairy farm waste (Nasdaq: CLNE).
– Hydrogen has been gaining acceptance for motor vehicles, despite lingering worries it may explode. Irvine-based FirstElement Fuel Inc. has received a $7.7 million California state grant to implement a system of hydrogen fueling stations.
– Vinnie Curcie, owner of Irvine-based OC Solar, predicted that revenue at his solar installation company will more than double this year to about $65 million. “In Southern California, we have the most expensive utilities prices combined with the most amount of solar. That is what makes Southern California the mecca for solar,” he told the Business Journal in November.
– Garden Grove-based Harbinger Motors Inc., which makes the chassis for electric trucks, raised $160 million in November, including from FedEx Corp. Harbinger’s employee count has jumped more than 50% to 450 in the past year. Harbinger is providing Thor Industries with a hybrid chassis for recreational vehicles.
– Irvine-based Karma Automotive designs luxury EVs. Earlier this year, it announced plans to debut Amaris, its first 2-door coupe that will feature an extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) powertrain.
Test Machine ‘Performs Beyond Expectations’
TAE Technologies has gotten a significant boost from President Donald Trump’s media group in its quest for nuclear energy. TAE says it is skipping its intermediate-stage Copernicus reactor prototype and heading straight to its first commercial power plant, known as da Vinci. TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer provided Business Journal with an inside look into the company’s super-charged journey in the following question-and-answer session on Dec. 21:
Q: How will the merger affect the Copernicus site in Irvine?
A: Our Norm machine has performed beyond expectations, leapfrogging a planned sixth device, Copernicus. We will be moving forward with da Vinci and the necessary engineering, system integration and long-lead procurement. The Copernicus site in Irvine is no longer needed and no longer part of our property portfolio.
Q: Where will the da Vinci site be?
A: We’ve not announced that yet. We’re aiming to complete power plant site selection in 2026, targeting 50 MW of electricity, scaling from there to projects in the 350-500 MW range.
Q: Devin Nunes says fusion power plants “are now feasible at commercial scale.” Isn’t that getting a bit ahead of things?
A: Five successive fusion machines have proven the core physics, including the ability to stabilize plasma, a capability no other fusion program has matched at scale. We are confident that we will be able to deliver first power from da Vinci.
Q: The news release says construction of the utility-scale fusion power plant is expected to start in 2026. But couldn’t your site requirements change as the technology evolves?
A: Our breakthrough reactor design is smaller, less expensive and easier to build and operate. These attributes make it fairly site-agnostic and community-friendly. Technology will continue to evolve over time, and we believe the plant will be able to provide useful power despite any possible changes to site criteria.
Q: Trump has promised you $300 million. Is that enough to get you to power in 2031? How much more money would TAE need?
A: The merger would deliver the capital necessary to accelerate commercial fusion at a pace no private company has yet achieved. $300 million gets us started on our path to power, and we have a committed partner with access to the capital necessary to realize the potential of fusion.
Q: Up until now TAE has been carefully working toward fusion primarily with a scientist’s mindset. Are you ready to face the demands of impatient shareholders? Many, including Donald J. Trump Jr., are new to fusion technology and the challenges it poses.
A: The TAE team and technology are battle-tested. Now, we will have a partner that’s willing to go big, act boldly and move fast. Meanwhile, surging power demand and national policy priorities are tailwinds for the rapid deployment of our technology. We believe we will offer a compelling value proposition.
