E9: Fusion Founders

In the bizarro relay marathon that is the fusion race, the baton is firmly in the hands of the startups. The outcome, to be sure, is still uncertain, but the question isn’t whether humanity will achieve commercial fusion, but which companies will, with which approaches, when? Fusion, many believe, will be one of humanity’s greatest triumphs: we will be able to generate energy in the same way that stars do, right on earth. And in this episode, Packy and Julia talk to some of the people who are most likely to make it happen. They'll answer the question of “Why now?” for fusion, and for startups in particular, dive into their business models and the economics of a fusion plant, and discuss what a rollout of fusion across the globe might look like. Thank you to this episode’s guests: David Kirtley, Sehila Gonzalez, Clay Dumas, JC Btaiche, Francesco Sciortino, Clea Kolster, Ryan Umstattd, Derek Sutherland, and Ian Hogarth. SPONSORS: RIPPLING SPEND | WEIGHTS AND BIASES | GIVEWELL | ANROK Imagine total control over your company's spending with Rippling Spend, the all-in-one platform for expense reports, corporate cards, and bill pay. Visit https://www.rippling.com/turpentine for a free demo and one month free trial. Advanced training for building production-ready RAG applications. Learn from experts to overcome LLM challenges, evaluate systematically, and integrate advanced features. Includes free Cohere credits. Visit https://wandb.me/cr to start the RAG++ course today. GiveWell spends 50,000 hours every year doing deep-dives into different charitable programs to try to find the ways to do the most good for your dollar. Visit https://www.givewell.org to find out more or make a donation. Select PODCAST and enter Econ 102 at checkout to make sure they know you heard about them from us. Anrok is the enterprise-grade solution that automates sales tax compliance worldwide. Visit https://www.anrok.com/turpentine to claim your free nexus study and take control of your SaaS tax strategy. – A huge thank you to our presenting sponsors for Season 1: Range Fund Holdings: Visit https://www.rangeetfs.com or contact your financial advisor to learn more about the Range Nuclear Renaissance ETF and start investing in the future of energy. Secureframe: Get 10% off your first year of Secureframe: https://secureframe.com/packy Pilot.com: Get 20% off your accounting bill for the first 6 months, go to https://pilot.com/packy Clean Air Task Force https://www.catf.us/ For the full list of resources referenced in this show: https://ageofmiraclesss.addpotion.com/ Subscribe to Not Boring to get weekly doses of tech and business strategy, straight to your inbox: https://www.notboring.co/ Follow our hosts: Packy McCormick on Twitter and LinkedIn Julia DeWahl on Twitter and LinkedIn -- RECOMMENDED PODCAST: 📈 ECON 102 W/ NOAH SMITH - Keeping econ entertaining - Noahpinion author Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg break down business news and politics every week. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mos4VE3figVXleHDqfXOH Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/id1753399812https://podcasts.apple.com/id1753399812 -- Timestamps: (00:00) The fusion race (04:54) Why now? What changed? (10:28) Commonwealth (13:21) Fuse Energy (23:35) Proxima Fusion (31:10) Zap Energy (39:09) Helion Energy (52:30) The unit economics of a fusion plant (1:01:24) Fusion commercial rollout (1:05:03) Recap This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at [email protected]. Credits: Nancy Xu produced this season of Age of Miracles. Audio editor: Justin Golden. Video editor: Nancy Xu. Executive producers: Amelia Salyers, Packy McCormick, and Erik Torenberg.