The man behind ChatGPT has bet hundreds of millions of dollars that nuclear fusion will work — and Microsoft has already purchased energy from a reactor that does not yet exist.

Written by Douglas Avila

Published on 18/04/2026 at 21:40

1 person reacted to this.

Sam Altman invested hundreds of millions in Helion Energy, OpenAI is negotiating to buy 12.5% of all the energy the company produces, and Microsoft has already signed a contract to receive 50 MW from a reactor that has not yet generated a single watt — the boldest bet in the history of nuclear fusion

The man who created ChatGPT has a problem.

The data centers that power artificial intelligence consume absurd amounts of energy.

And Sam Altman believes there is only one long-term solution: nuclear fusion.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

The numbers that scare

US$ 375 million: personal investment by Sam Altman in Helion
US$ 500 million: Series E round in 2021, led by Altman
US$ 612 million: total raised in venture capital
US$ 425 million: additional round in January 2025
US$ 1.8 billion: promise of funding conditioned on technical milestones
12.5%: share of production that OpenAI wants to secure
5 GW by 2030 and 50 GW by 2035: Helion’s projections

Microsoft has already bought energy that does not exist

In May 2023, Microsoft signed a historic agreement with Helion.

Bill Gates’ company will receive up to 50 megawatts of clean energy from Helion.

The delivery is scheduled for 2028.

The contract includes financial penalties if Helion fails to meet the timeline.

It is the first PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) in history for nuclear fusion energy.

Helion Energy laboratory with fusion reactor prototype — Helion has already received US$ 612 million in venture capital and a promise of an additional US$ 1.8 billion conditioned on meeting technical milestones

OpenAI wants 12.5% of all production

In March 2026, Axios revealed that OpenAI is in advanced negotiations to buy 12.5% of all the energy that Helion produces.

This means that if Helion reaches 5 GW by 2030, OpenAI would have 625 MW guaranteed — enough energy to power hundreds of thousands of GPUs training AI models.

Altman recently stepped down as chairman of Helion’s board and distanced himself from the negotiations to avoid a conflict of interest.

What Altman said in Davos

At the World Economic Forum, Altman stated: “There is no way to get there without a breakthrough. We need fusion or we need radically cheaper solar energy with more storage or something at that massive level.”

For him, AI requires an energy revolution — and fusion is the bet.

Google bet on the competitor

While Altman bets on Helion, Google has made deals with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, including a contract for 200 megawatts of energy.

Additionally, investors such as SoftBank, Mithril Capital (from Peter Thiel), and Dustin Moskovitz (co-founder of Facebook) are also betting on Helion.

Compact nuclear fusion reactor with bright plasma — Helion is close to scientific breakeven — the point at which fusion produces more energy than it consumes, a milestone that no private company has achieved

Important caveats

No private company has achieved “scientific breakeven” — the milestone at which fusion produces more energy than it consumes.

Discussions with OpenAI are in preliminary stages, with conditions still to be met.

Helion is optimistic, but commercial nuclear fusion technology has never been realized by any entity in the world.

Moreover, the Stargate Project (Microsoft-OpenAI) that would consume this energy has a projected cost of up to US$ 100 billion.

Still, when the CEO of the world’s most valuable AI company invests hundreds of millions of his own money in nuclear fusion, the market pays attention.

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The man behind ChatGPT has bet hundreds of millions of dollars that nuclear fusion will work — and Microsoft has already purchased energy from a reactor that does not yet exist.

The numbers that scare

Microsoft has already bought energy that does not exist

OpenAI wants 12.5% of all production

What Altman said in Davos

Google bet on the competitor

Important caveats

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The man behind ChatGPT has bet hundreds of millions of dollars that nuclear fusion will work — and Microsoft has already purchased energy from a reactor that does not yet exist.

The numbers that scare

Microsoft has already bought energy that does not exist

OpenAI wants 12.5% of all production

What Altman said in Davos

Google bet on the competitor

Important caveats

A giant printer called the “Ferrari” of concrete has landed in Latin America and can already build a 120-square-meter house in just 48 hours, making the traditional construction site look like something from the last century.

Brazil will harvest a record crop of up to 357 million tons of grains, but it does not have the capacity to store a large part of it. The storage deficit has reached the highest level in history and is equivalent to almost the entire production of Argentina.

Four times faster than the Concorde, capable of taking passengers from New York to London in less than an hour at Mach 5.5, and with an engine that switches from turbojet to ramjet mid-flight at Mach 3.5, the Hermeus Quarterhorse went from paper to its first flight in just 19 months.

Under nearly 2 kilometers of ice in Antarctica, scientists have discovered an ancient landscape sculpted by rivers up to 60 million years ago, the size of Wales, preserved as a time capsule that could help predict the advance of ice towards the ocean.

She started by collecting oyster shells from restaurants and today she has already accumulated more than 10 tons to restore reefs, recover coastal habitats, and demonstrate how a common waste can become a tool for ocean conservation.

SpaceX will dock a $843 million vehicle to the International Space Station to push a nearly 420-ton laboratory against the atmosphere and make the debris fall in a controlled manner into the ocean.

Surprising the advanced computing sector, Microsoft unveils the Majorana 2 quantum chip with greater stability, direct integration with artificial intelligence, and an unprecedented architecture that could accelerate the global race for commercially viable quantum computers.

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