Helion Energy focuses on developing fusion generators to make fusion energy commercially viable. Their fusion generators are designed to be smaller, cheaper, and faster to produce than current technologies. The company utilizes pulsed accelerator technology, which is essential for addressing the Helium-3 crisis, a critical element for modern computing and clean energy. Helion's team consists of experienced entrepreneurs and scientists who have created award-winning prototypes, positioning them as a strong contender in the fusion energy sector. Unlike competitors, Helion combines steady magnetic and inertial fusion methods, resulting in engines that are significantly more efficient in size and cost. The goal is to have a commercial fusion plant operational within six years, providing sustainable energy solutions to industries and governments.

Mithril Capital Management

Mithril

Capricorn Investment Group

Y Combinator

Dustin Moskovitz

Sam Altman

Energy

Helion Energy

Fusion, The Ultimate Energy SourceAs stable, reliable, cheap, and carbon-neutral energy supplies become an increasingly pressing issue, all eyes have been on nuclear solutions.This includes nuclear fission, or the splitting of heavy atoms like uranium, thorium, or plutonium. This technology is making a dramatic comeback on the back of the phasing out of coal and gas power plants, despite the need for baseload power generation, as well as the trends of electrification of transportation, heating, and industrial production.It is, however, not without problems, even for the more advanced 4th generation of nuclear power plants. Most notably, it still involves the handling of highly radioactive materials, something the public is still wary of and never going to be fully environmentally neutral.This is why scientists have been looking at the promises of nuclear fusion, which merge together atoms like hydrogen, the same phenomenon powering the Sun.This would use a fuel that is the most abundant element in the Universe and produce only harmless helium or lithium. It would also be powerful enough to make available essentially infinite energy, with zero risk of explosion or runaway chain reaction.The problem is that producing the required conditions is so hard to achieve that no fusion reactor has ever come close to commercialization so far.This might change in less than a decade, at least according to Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). The company has just announced that it is moving toward building the first commercial fusion reactor in Virginia .CFS Reactor ProjectCommonwealth Fusion Systems is aiming for its ARC reactor to generate 400 MW for the Virginian power grid, which is enough to power 150,000 homes.This is a radical advancement for the field of nuclear fusion, as it always seemed that the first scale-up reactor was 20-30 years away. Even the massive international endeavor that is ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is not expected to be finished before 2039.In comparison, the CFS reactor is planned to be built on a site owned by the energy company Dominion (D +0.2%)

First Commercial Nuclear Fusion Project Announced

There’s a new name atop the GeekWire 200.Seattle-area sales enablement company Highspot has taken the No. 1 spot on our ranking of privately held technology companies in Seattle and the rest of the Pacific Northwest.Outreach (No. 7), another Seattle sales software startup, previously held the No. 1 slot, but the company has been trimming its workforce, including a 9% layoff earlier this month. Its longtime CEO also recently stepped down.That opened up opportunity for Bellevue, Wash.-based Highspot, which raised $250 million in 2022 and is growing headcount again after laying off staff last year. Highspot was included in a recent Forrester Research report analyzing top revenue enablement platforms.The GeekWire 200, presented by JPMorganChase, provides a snapshot of the region’s robust startup landscape and highlights companies that are gaining traction.The top-ranked companies have changed quite a bit over the years, reflecting the dynamic nature of the fast-moving tech industry.Some startups fall down the list due to workforce reductions

Geekwire 200 Update: A New No. 1 Rises To The Top Of Our Startup Rankings

Fusion energy is as old as our cosmic system. It fuels the sun and the stars. However, its application on our planet is still experimental.According to a mid-July report, investments in the field rose more than $900 million this year to about $7.1 billion. However, experts believe that the growth in investments is not yet adequate. It is lower than the rise of US$1.4 billion achieved last year and US$2.8 billion in 2022.According to Andrew Holland, the head of the Fusion Industry Association:“The growth seen in the last 12 months is positive, but will not be enough to deliver fusion’s ambitious goals.”As in any other sector, growth can only be achieved through innovation. Today, we will explore one such efficient and crucial innovation—aimed at eliminating the need for an Ohmic heating solenoid—that could be the most impactful design driver in realizing economical, compact fusion tokamak reactor systems.But before delving deeper into the research and its ramifications, we must have a brief overview of how fusion energy science works and the role tokamak systems play in it.The Science of Fusion Energy and Tokamak SystemsIt is a multidisciplinary field of science that aims to develop an energy source based on controlled fusion

Spherical Fusion Vessels And Mayonnaise – Reimagining Our Future Energy Needs

Does Nuclear Fusion Mean Hot Fusion Only?Nuclear fusion is the Holy Grail of energy research. It would deliver massive amounts of clean energy, producing no nuclear waste or carbon emissions, while using a fuel so abundant that it makes up the majority of matter in the universe.It is also incredibly difficult to achieve, simply because the only way we know for nuclear fusion to occur is to replicate the conditions inside stars, with unfathomable pressure and temperature in the tens or hundreds of millions of degrees.This can be achieved using powerful magnetic fields to contain and compress the ultra-hot plasma. Or with hundreds of powerful lasers all synchronized to aim for the same spot. However, all these methods struggle to sustain the fusion reaction for long enough to “pay back” the energy spent initiating nuclear fusion.The complexity of nuclear fusion technology and its potential to solve our energy problem was discussed in further detail in our article “ Nuclear Fusion – The Ultimate Clean Energy Solution on the Horizon .”But what if nuclear fusion could happen in different circumstances, using material science, rare metals, and chemistry instead of high-power plasma physics?This is the promise of “cold fusion,” a field that was long considered unscientific and derided by the scientific community. This was until a scientific paper was published in the prestigious journal Nature, titled “ Observation of neutron emission during acoustic cavitation of deuterated titanium powder .”History Of Cold FusionIn 1989, researchers Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann claimed to have achieved cold fusion. Unfortunately, years of trying to replicate the findings by the scientific community have, so far, been unsuccessful, leading to accusations of poor-quality science or even outright fraud.The following controversy permanently damaged the image of this concept

Cold Fusion Reignite Dreams Of Clean Energy Without Hot Plasma

Ben Levitt, vice president of research and development at Zap Energy, left, explaining the company’s fusion technology to Gov. Jay Inslee. To the right are Rep. Mary Fosse and Rep. Julio Cortes, both from Everett. (Zap Energy Photo / Andy Freeberg)The fusion industry last year pulled in more than $900 million of private and public funding in the quest to produce power by smashing atoms together

Gov. Inslee, Sen. Murray Visit Washington Fusion Startups As Funding Heats Up Despite Tech Hurdles

Former Interlune intern Maia Willebrand helps test an early prototype of Interlune’s soil-processing hardware on a parabolic flight in February. Interlune funded the February flight, but a NASA grant will support future flights. (Zero Gravity Corp. Photo / Steve Boxall)Seattle-based Interlune has received a $348,000 grant from NASA to test its system for processing lunar soil on a series of reduced-gravity airplane flights — marking one more small step toward harvesting helium-3 and other resources on the moon.The project is one of 11 selected for funding through NASA’s TechFlights program, which supports space technology testing on suborbital rockets, rocket-powered landers or airplane-based platforms.Interlune’s system is known as CRUMBLE — an acronym that stands for “Comminution of Regolith Using Milling for Beneficiation of Lunar Extract.” Basically, the system would break down lunar dirt and rock, or regolith, and make it easier to extract potentially valuable ingredients such as helium-3.The TechFlights grant will fund parabolic flights provided by Zero Gravity Corp. to see which kinds of equipment would work best in the airless, reduced-gravity conditions present on the moon’s surface. Interlune would use simulated moon dirt to put prototypes for its CRUMBLE processor through their paces.““We are writing a new playbook for how public-private partnerships can deliver world-changing innovation to benefit all,” Interlune co-founder and CEO Rob Meyerson said today in a news release

Nasa Awards $348,000 To Interlune To Test Technology For Processing Moon Soil

The Power Of StarsNuclear power has a bad reputation with many people. It is partly justified, with disasters like Chernobyl or Fukushima having stained its reputation.Other people have the opposite opinion, considering that anything short of splitting atoms is a primitive and inefficient way to produce energy. They also point to the low carbon emissions and highly stable baseload power that nuclear energy can provide.It is likely that nuclear energy will be part of our future energy mix , especially as the 4 th generation of nuclear reactors starts to come online , which will be cleaner, safer, and more efficient.However, all of these reactors rely on the concept of nuclear fission. They take very heavy atoms like uranium, thorium, or plutonium, and collect energy when they break into lighter elements.Another form of nuclear energy is nuclear fusion. It relies on taking very light elements and making them fuse into heavier ones.Nuclear fusion is literally what powers the universe, with every star a gigantic nuclear fusion reactor. Every second, the sun consumes 600 million tons of hydrogen

Nuclear Fusion – The Ultimate Clean Energy Solution On The Horizon

Sustainability: News about the rapidly growing climate tech sector and other areas of innovation to protect our planet. SEE MOREOpenAI CEO Sam Altman, shown here at Microsoft’s Build developer conference in Seattle on May 21, 2024, is the board chair of Helion Energy. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop)The Seattle-area fusion company Helion Energy is talking with OpenAI about a deal in which the AI company “would buy vast quantities of electricity to provide power for data centers,” according to the Wall Street Journal.OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman has invested $375 million in Helion and is the company’s board chair. Altman has reportedly recused himself from the deal talks.Helion is developing technology to produce renewable energy from nuclear fusion — a potentially limitless source of power, but one that no one has been able to harness in a commercially viable manner.Yet the sector has attracted billions of dollars in investment, and companies internationally are striving to harness the fusion reactions that power the sun and the stars.Speaking at an event at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, Altman said the future of AI is predicated on dramatic advancements in the availability of clean power.“There’s no way to get there without a breakthrough,” he said. “We need fusion or we need like radically cheaper solar plus storage or something at massive scale.”Helion is racing to deliver on that breakthrough. The company has raised $612 million in venture capital, with the promise of $1.8 billion of additional funding getting unlocked if deadlines are met

Openai Reportedly In Talks With Helion Energy To ‘Buy Vast Quantities’ Of Fusion Power

Technology Alliance CEO Laura Ruderman speaks during the 2024 State of Technology Luncheon in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)[Editor’s Note: This commentary was adapted from Technology Alliance CEO Laura Ruderman’s remarks at the organization’s annual State of Technology Luncheon on Friday, May 3, in Seattle.]The Technology Alliance was founded just over 25 years ago by folks like Bill Gates Sr., Tom Alberg, Ed Fritzky, Ed Lazowska, and, of course, our fearless founding CEO, Susannah Malarkey.Those folks came together in the late ’90s, looked around, and said, ‘You know, this tech economy thing is going to be a thing and we should position Washington state to be a hub of the tech economy.’ Today, that idea may seem self-evident. But back then, the Washington state economy was built on agriculture, manufacturing airplanes, and OMG what are we going to do about the timber and fishing industries after the spotted owl listing.We had some mid-size life sciences companies, and people knew about Microsoft, but Amazon had only just started selling books, Google wasn’t yet a company, and Mark Zuckerberg was in middle school.Bill and Tom and Ed and Susannah and others visited places like Silicon Valley, Research Triangle, and Boston and determined that a successful tech economy requires three things: an educated workforce, research capacity, and a strong entrepreneurial climate.They also saw that progress on these issues would require a conscious coming together of elected officials, research institutions, and the business community. Out of all of that, they created the Technology Alliance, an organization whose purpose was to broaden the constituency for technology-based economic development and to integrate the business, education, and civic sectors in a shared agenda to foster the creation of a 21st century economy that would benefit all Washingtonians. A core element of that was to educate the larger community about the value of a technology-based economy, the constellation of requirements for that economy, and the public investments that would need to be made.Workforce, innovation, and entrepreneurial climateWe’ve had many successes over the last 25-plus years, yet some of the issues remain the same. There are still those who question the value of an innovation-based economy and the need for public investment to support and enhance that economy

Commentary: What It Will Take For Washington State To Create A Skilled And Adaptable Workforce

An artist’s conception shows Interlune’s robotic harvester on the moon. (Interlune Illustration)Seattle-based Interlune officially lifted the curtain today on its plans to build a robotic harvester that could extract helium-3 from moon dirt and send it back to Earth for applications ranging from quantum computing to fusion power.Rob Meyerson, a co-founder of the startup and former president of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, told GeekWire that an initial prospecting mission could be launched as early as 2026, with commercial operations beginning in the 2030s.“For the first time in history, harvesting natural resources from the moon is technologically and economically feasible,” Meyerson said today in a news release. “With our uniquely experienced and qualified team, Interlune is creating the core technologies to extract and process lunar resources responsibly to serve a wide range of customers.”Today’s announcement confirmed previous reports that Interlune has raised $18 million in seed capital, including angel investments as well as more than $15 million in funding that was reported in a regulatory filing last month.That funding round was led by Seven Seven Six, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture firm, with participation by other investors including Aurelia Foundry Fund, Gaingels, Liquid 2 Ventures, Shasta Ventures and alumni from the University of Michigan (where Meyerson went to school).“We invested in Interlune because access to the ample cache of helium-3 and other precious natural resources on the moon and beyond will unlock or accelerate technological advancements currently hindered by lack of supply,” Ohanian said.Katelin Holloway, a founding partner of Seven Seven Six, will join Interlune’s board of directors. “What captivates me most [about Interlune] is their unique position to transform decades of technological advancements into near-term reality, giving hope that my grandmother and young sons might soon witness history in their shared lifetime,” Holloway said.In addition to Meyerson, Interlune’s founding team includes Gary Lai, who served as Blue Origin’s chief architect and is now chief technology officer at Interlune; executive chairman Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon as an Apollo 17 astronaut and served a term in the U.S. Senate; chief operating officer Indra Hornsby, an aerospace executive with previous experience at Rocket Lab and BlackSky; and head of product James Antifaev, a tech executive whose resume includes stints at Spaceflight Inc.,  Alphabet’s Loon venture and Maxar Technologies.Blue Origin veterans Gary Lai (left) and Rob Meyerson (center), and Apollo 17 moonwalker Harrison Schmitt (right), are among the co-founders of Interlune. (Lai and Schmitt photos by Alan Boyle for GeekWire; Meyerson photo via ISPCS and YouTube)‘This is a big vision’The first outlines of Interlune’s business plan came to light last October, but today Meyerson delved more deeply into the company’s vision for bringing valuable lunar resources back to Earth

Interlune Comes Out Of Stealth With Its Plan To Harvest Helium-3 And More On The Moon

Develops commercial fusion energy generators

Helion Energy

Develops commercial fusion energy generators

Helion Energy

Develops commercial fusion energy generators

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