Trump Media & Technology, the struggling firm that owns the U.S. president's Truth Social platform, will merge with a fusion power company TAE Technologies in an all-stock deal that the companies said Thursday is valued at more than $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.
The combined company says it plans to find a site and begin construction next year on the "world's first utility-scale fusion power plant," with aims to provide the electricity needed for artificial intelligence.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology, the parent company of President Donald Trump's Truth Social media platform, have tumbled 70% this year but jumped 20% 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 (IAEA).
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% of the combined company.
Trump is by far the largest stakeholder in Trump Media, owning 41% 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 $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.
