Trump Media to merge with nuclear fusion company that wants to power AI

The download screen for Truth Social app is seen on a laptop computer, March 20, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Trump Media & Technology will merge with a fusion power company in an all-stock deal that the companies said Thursday is valued at more than US$6 billion.

Devin Nunes, the Republican congressman who resigned in 2021 to become the CEO of Trump Media, will be co-CEO of the new company with TAE Technologies CEO Michl Binderbauer.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology, the parent company of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social media platform, have tumbled 70 per cent this year but jumped 20 per cent before the opening bell Thursday.

Backed by Google and other investors, TAE is a private company and the merger with Trump Media would create one of the first publicly traded nuclear fusion companies.

“We’re taking a big step forward toward a revolutionary technology that will cement America’s global energy dominance for generations,” Nunes said in a prepared statement.

TAE focuses on nuclear fusion, a technology that combines two light atomic nuclei to form a single heavier one. It releases enormous amount of energy, a process that occurs on the sun and other stars, according to the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency. It’s been seen as a promising solution to climate change caused by burning fossil fuels, but one that is a long way off compared to today’s clean technologies like wind and solar.

TAE and Trump Media shareholders will each own approximately 50 per cent of the combined company.

Trump is by far the largest stakeholder in Trump Media, owning 41 per cent of all outstanding shares.

In October, the U.S. Department of Energy released what it called a “roadmap” for fusion technology, with the aim of fostering “a burgeoning fusion private sector industry in the U.S. toward maturity on the most rapid timeline.” A number of tech companies, including Google, Microsoft and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have shown interest in fusion technology as a way of powering the energy-hungry data centers needed to build and run their AI products.

TAE and Trump Media say the transaction values each TAE common stock at US$53.89 per share.

At closing, Trump Media & Technology Group will be the holding company for Truth Social and TAE, along with its subsidiaries TAE Power Solutions and TAE Life Sciences.