Axios reported on the 23rd, citing sources, that OpenAI is in talks to purchase electricity from nuclear fusion startup Helion Energy.
According to Axios, OpenAI has entered the final stage of negotiations with Helion Energy to receive 5 GW (gigawatts) of power by 2030 and expand that to 50 GW by 2035. One GW is comparable to the generation capacity of one nuclear power plant and can supply electricity to 1 million households.
Nuclear Fusion Power is a technology that generates electricity by artificially reproducing the way energy is created in the sun. To do this, it must surpass the "scientific breakeven point," where the energy produced by the fusion reaction exceeds the energy put in.
However, it has only succeeded at the laboratory level so far and has not reached private commercial deployment. Sources said Helion views itself as having now reached the level for private use.
Neither side issued an official position on the negotiations.
However, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said on X (formerly Twitter), a social media platform, that he will step down as chair of the board at Helion, in which he has invested. He explained his resignation by saying, "Helion and OpenAI have started exploring large-scale collaboration, making it difficult to serve on both companies' boards at the same time."
He added, "I will recuse myself from the negotiations because I have a financial interest related to Helion."
Altman, a key investor who led Helion's $500 million (about 740 billion won) fundraising in 2021, is known to be involved, but his specific equity holdings have not been disclosed.