DJT Goes Full Sci-fi: Trump Media Strikes $6B Fusion Deal with TAE, Stock Rockets

With input from the New York Times, Politico, CNBC, and CNN.

Trump Media just made its biggest left turn yet — from social media and crypto into nuclear fusion.

On Thursday, Trump Media & Technology Group (the company behind Truth Social) announced an all-stock merger with TAE Technologies, a privately held fusion power firm. The deal values the combined tie-up at more than $6 billion, and if it clears the usual hurdles, it’s expected to close around mid-2026.

Investors loved the surprise. DJT shares spiked about 33% after the opening bell, even though the stock is still down more than 75% from its January highs.

The merger is structured so that shareholders of Trump Media and TAE would each end up owning roughly half of the combined company. Trump Media says the end result would be “one of the world’s first publicly traded fusion companies.”

Trump Media also agreed to put real money behind the move:

• Up to $200 million in cash to TAE at signing;
• Another $100 million available after a key regulatory filing (an S-4).

Leadership-wise, Trump Media chair Devin Nunes and TAE CEO Dr. Michl Binderbauer are set to serve as co-CEOs.

This pivot lands in the middle of a bigger energy panic: AI data centers are chewing through electricity, and the US is trying to keep pace in the tech race — including against China. Fusion is the flashy “future solution” because, in theory, it could deliver huge amounts of energy without the meltdown risks tied to traditional nuclear power.

The catch: there still aren’t any commercial fusion plants producing electricity today. Fusion has tons of promise, but it’s still not a proven grid-scale business.

Trump Media says it had more than $3 billion in assets as of November, much of that tied to the company’s push into crypto — including a sizable bitcoin stash.

But the operating business is still small. In the quarter ending Sept. 30, the company reported a $54.8 million net loss on less than $1 million in revenue, down from the year before.

President Donald Trump indirectly owns more than 114 million shares of Trump Media. Before taking office in January, he moved that stake into a revocable trust overseen by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

If the merger gets approved, the combined company would sit on top of a weirdly broad portfolio: Truth Social, Truth+, Truth.Fi, plus TAE and its spinoffs like TAE Power Solutions and TAE Life Sciences.

And the ambition is enormous: the companies say they want to build “the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant” — pending approvals — as a cornerstone project.

TAE, for its part, says it has 1,600 patents and has raised more than $1.3 billion, with backing from names like Google, Chevron and Goldman Sachs.

For now, the market’s takeaway is simple: DJT found a new storyline — and traders piled in. Whether fusion becomes a real business before the hype runs out is the part that still hasn’t been written.