Despite the decades-long efforts of scientists around the world, the commercialization of nuclear fusion technology has not yet been achieved on Earth. However, Bill Gates, who has invested significantly in both nuclear fission and fusion startups, is betting on cutting-edge tech to provide a promising path toward green energy. “I’m a big believer that nuclear energy can help us solve the climate problem,” the Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder told The Verge in a wide-ranging interview published today (Sept. 5).
Gates has long been outspoken about his adventurous approach to climate technology. Such sentiments have become more pertinent in recent years as concerns about Big Tech’s energy use proliferate. The energy consumption of data centers that power A.I. computing, for example, is expected to potentially double to take up 9 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.
According to Gates, A.I. data centers will actually generate a less than 10 percent increase in energy use. Even so, Big Tech is exploring clean energy sources and will pioneer fission and fusion power “to help bootstrap that green energy generation,” he said. Microsoft, for example, last year signed a power purchase agreement with Helion Energy, a nuclear fusion company backed by Sam Altman, to buy electricity from the startup in 2028.
Lauded for its potential to provide mass amounts of affordable and clean energy, nuclear fusion is the same process that powers the sun and stars. It occurs when two light atoms combine to form a heavier one while releasing energy, a reaction that must take place in extremely high temperatures of around 10 million degrees Celsius, according to the International Atomic Energy.
Although the process has yet to be commercially harnessed, nuclear fusion technology has received an outburst of financial support in recent years. Of $7.1 billion in total funding since 1992, the sector received $900 million last year, according to a recent report from the Fusion Industry Association, which noted that 89 percent of private fusion companies believe the technology will be operational by the end of the 2030s.
The report identified 45 companies worldwide working to commercialize nuclear fusion. Of those startups, five are backed by Gates via Breakthrough Energy Ventures, his climate-focused investment fund. The billionaire has invested in the likes of Zap Energy, which is hoping to build a fusion power plant in the next few years, and Type One Energy, which uses magnets to help fuse atoms. Both Gates and Amazon (AMZN)’s Jeff Bezos have supported Commonwealth Fusion Systems, another startup aiming to make the commercialization of fusion power a possibility in the near future.
Despite skepticism over whether nuclear fusion—which doesn’t emit greenhouse gases or carbon dioxide—will actually come to fruition in the next few years or decades, Gates said he remains optimistic. “Although their timeframes are further out, I think the role of fusion over time will be very, very critical,” he told The Verge.
The billionaire has also invested in modern forms of nuclear fission energy, which produces energy when atoms are split apart. Gates is attempting to develop a cheaper form of fission via $1 billion worth of investments into TerraPower, a startup that recently broke ground on a nuclear power plant site in Kemmerer, Wyo. and aims to develop more affordable and safer forms of fission by using water to cool reactors instead of sodium. “People are appropriately skeptical because it’s never been done,” Gates told The Verge. “But they’ll get to see as we build that plant, and if so, it can make a contribution.”
Gates isn’t alone in his embrace of all things nuclear. Bezos, too, has become a prominent investor in fusion technology, having invested in Canadian startup General Fusion’s dreams of developing a pilot plant. OpenAI’s Altman has poured capital and time into the field as well, backing and chairing both Helion Energy and the nuclear energy startup Oklo.
