Helion Energy signed a letter of intent with the US Department of Commerce for up to $175 million in CHIPS research funding, paired with a $50 million private contribution, to develop and manufacture high-voltage semiconductors for fusion systems. The federal award remains conditional on a definitive agreement, which would give Commerce a $175 million nonvoting interest in Helion based on its latest Series G preferred valuation.
The package is not a completed $225 million funding round. CEO David Kirtley told GeekWire that the private portion combines previously committed money with new capital, without specifying how much is new. Helion separately closed a $500 million Series G in September at a $15.5 billion post-money valuation.
Helion’s machines use electrical pulses and magnets to form and compress plasma, then recover electricity as the expanding plasma induces current in surrounding coils. That direct process avoids using heat to drive a steam turbine, making semiconductors responsible for repeatedly switching, controlling and recovering large electrical flows with limited losses.
More than $100 million would support semiconductor and advanced-packaging research in Everett, Washington, where Helion expects the work to create over 100 jobs. Approximately $80 million would fund tooling, design and process development with GlobalFoundries in Vermont, according to GeekWire. Helion says components meeting its current requirements are available only from overseas manufacturers.
Helion already has primarily overseas-sourced semiconductors available for Orion, Kirtley told GeekWire, and some devices developed through the proposed program could enter the plant late in construction. Orion is being built in Malaga, Washington, for a power-purchase agreement with Microsoft covering at least 50 megawatts.
No developer has demonstrated commercially viable fusion power at scale. Axios reported in September that Helion had removed an earlier prediction that Orion would begin producing electricity in 2028; its website now promises undefined “initial operations” that year. A company public-affairs director said full 50-megawatt output would not arrive before 2029 or 2030, and whether the required 2028 grid connection includes supplying electricity remains unclear.