Google places another fusion power bet on TAE Technologies

In a significant boost for the future of fusion energy, TAE Technologies has announced the successful completion of a $150 million funding round, featuring contributions from prominent investors including Google, Chevron, and New Enterprise Associates. This marks the 12th round of funding for the nearly three-decade-old company, which has now raised approximately $1.8 billion, positioning it as one of the leading contenders in the fusion industry. Previously known as Tri Alpha Energy, TAE has spent years developing its innovative reactor design in relative secrecy. Initially, the company employed a method that involved colliding two plasma balls, which were then manipulated with particle beams to form a stable plasma blob, resembling a hollow cigar, that generates its own magnetic field for plasma containment. Recently, TAE achieved a breakthrough by eliminating the need to collide plasma balls to initiate a reaction. The new approach allows the formation, heating, and stabilization of plasma through particle beams alone, resulting in a more compact, cost-effective, and manageable reactor. Google has been a consistent supporter of TAE, participating in two funding rounds, including a previous $250 million investment in 2022. The partnership began in 2014, with Google’s computer scientists collaborating with TAE engineers to harness machine learning to optimize fusion device settings. This AI-driven optimization has drastically reduced the experimental process from requiring around 1,000 experiments over two months to just a few hours. Currently, TAE’s reactor is capable of producing plasmas at temperatures of 70 million degrees Celsius, but to achieve commercial viability, they aim to reach temperatures of 1 billion degrees Celsius. CEO Michl Binderbauer has indicated plans to secure an additional $50 million before the funding round concludes later this summer, with aspirations to begin supplying electrons to the grid by the early 2030s.