Sam Altman is confident that we’ll unlock the power of the stars soon.
The billionaire CEO of OpenAI claimed in an interview with Bloomberg in January that “fusion’s gonna work” in the next few years—thanks to Helion, a company where Altman is the chairman of the board and one of the main investors.
If Altman is right, it would herald a new era. Nuclear fusion holds the promise of clean, cheap, abundant, reliable energy. With no carbon emissions and no obvious physical limitations on their location, dependable fusion power plants could permanently transform the world. Fusion could theoretically power energy-hungry emerging technologies like generative AI, cryptocurrency mining, and even interplanetary travel, while also turning the tide in the battle to curb climate change.
But if Altman’s prediction sounds familiar, it’s because he has made similar ones before, and they haven’t worked out. In 2022, he claimed that Helion would “resolve all questions needed to design a mass-producible fusion generator” by 2024. Helion itself announced in late 2021 that it would “demonstrate net electricity from fusion” on that same timetable. But 2024 came and went without any news of a breakthrough from the startup.
Such cycles of bold claims and deflating disappointments are part of a long tradition. The promise of fusion power has been a dream for decades, pursued by scientists, governments, and corporations the world over—and there’s a similarly lengthy history of fusion failing to arrive when predicted. There’s even an old joke that fusion has been 30 years away for the past 60 years.
