The Sam Altman–chaired Helion Energy fusion power developer announced a new milestone Feb. 13, achieving record plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius—10 times that of the sun’s core—as part of its immensely ambitious goal to bring power to the grid in Washington State by 2028.
Startup developers of fusion energy—the so-called power of the stars in a jar—are racing to prove their technologies and bring clean, limitless electricity to the grid to meet the power needs of the AI boom. While Helion has the most aggressive timeline for first commercial power—under contract for Microsoft data centers—skeptics have questioned Helion’s start date; its unique technological approach versus competitors; and its relative lack of scientific updates until now.
“While interstitial milestones are really important to show that the technology works and you can get regulatory approval, at the end of the day, it’s about deploying power plants at scale to support the growing power needs,” Helion cofounder and CEO David Kirtley told Fortune.
“We’re on schedule to still have first electrons to the grid in 2028. It is an aggressive milestone. It’s going to be hard,” Kirtley said. “Part of that is the progressive iteration and parallel development right now in Malaga, Washington.”
