President Donald Trump’s social media company, which recently expanded into streaming and cryptocurrency, is now looking to become a fusion power company.

Trump Media & Technology Group and TAE Technologies, a fusion power company, said Thursday they had agreed to an all stock merger valued at more than $6 billion.

The deal would be a total transformation for Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, a social media platform that has struggled to gain market share beyond serving as the main online megaphone for Trump. Trump Media’s stock has been flagging — falling about 69% this year before the merger announcement.

The announcement provided a jolt to Trump Media’s shares, which rose about 25% in premarket trading. Trump is the company’s largest shareholder, owning a large stake worth more than $1 billion — though at one time it was worth more than $4 billion. His shares are held in a trust managed by his eldest son, Donald Jr., who is a Trump Media board member.

The president did not immediately comment on the deal on Truth Social.

The merger would create one of the world’s first publicly traded nuclear fusion companies, according to a news release. TAE Technologies, according to the release, has received financial backing from Google, Chevron and Goldman Sachs, among others.

Some tech companies are looking at fusion, a still-experimental technology, as a clean energy source that could help feed the electricity thirst of artificial intelligence data centers.

Deal Likely to Draw Scrutiny

The deal is likely to draw scrutiny as it would indirectly put Trump in competition with other companies looking to fuel and profit from the AI revolution.

The merged companies plan to create the first “utility-scale fusion power plant” in 2026, and aim to build additional plants in the future, according to the release.

“Fusion power will be the most dramatic energy breakthrough since the onset of commercial nuclear energy in the 1950s,” Devin Nunes, the CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, said in the announcement.

The deal would have to be approved by Trump Media shareholders. It is unclear if the merger would need any additional regulatory approval beyond basic clearance by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fusion technology has been something of a dream energy alternative for decades.

Following the deal’s announcement, Dan Ives, a tech stock analyst, wrote on the social platform X that the merger was a “major bet on nuclear fusion power.” He added the deal signified that the “AI Arms Race” was underway.

TAE, originally called Tri Alpha Energy, was founded in 1998. Some of the early backers of the company included astronaut Buzz Aldrin, actor and environmentalist Harry Hamlin and Allen Puckett, a former chair of Hughes Aircraft, according to the company’s website.

The companies said in the release that TAE had built five fusion reactors and had raised more than $1.3 billion over the years. The British government recently announced a joint venture with TAE on fusion technology.

Trump Media came into existence in early 2021. Later that year, it announced a merger with a cash-rich shell company known as a special purpose acquisition company. A few months after the merger announcement, Trump Media rolled out Truth Social, which has emerged as Trump’s main online platform for communicating with the world.

But Truth Social has struggled to gain market share or advertising dollars. The company has recently diversified into cryptocurrency, raising $2.5 billion to invest in bitcoin, and it is also working to bring crypto-related exchange traded funds, or ETFs, to market. But none of those moves has slowed the steady decline in Trump Media’s share price this year.

If the merger is completed, Trump Media plans to provide up to $300 million to TAE Technologies, and shareholders of both companies would each own approximately 50% of the combined company, the announcement said. Nunes and Michl Binderbauer, the CEO of TAE, would be co-CEOs of the combined company.

Nunes and Donald Trump Jr. would remain on the combined nine-member board of both companies.

The deal comes as China is investing heavily in fusion research. Fusion generates massive amounts of energy by merging atoms. It relies on abundant fuel sources, eliminates the risk of meltdowns, and produces no long-term radioactive waste.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Matthew Goldstein and Jonathan Wolfe/Yuvraj Khanna
c. 2025 The New York Times Company