Overview
- Helion closed a $465 million Series G on Thursday, valuing the company at $15.5 billion and bringing total capital raised to more than $1.5 billion.
- The funding will speed construction and testing for the 50 MW Orion plant in Malaga, Washington, which Helion says is meant to supply Microsoft’s Central Washington data center by 2028.
- The company pursues a magnetic compression approach that intends to convert fusion output directly into electricity through its magnets, and it is testing its Polaris prototype while building a smaller agile testbed called Tiny Merge to iterate faster.
- The round was led by Thrive Capital and included new and returning investors such as Bill Ford and Lightspeed Venture Partners, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has disclosed owning roughly one‑third of Helion while having resigned from its board in March.
- Industry experts warn that major technical hurdles remain and that Helion’s limited peer‑reviewed disclosures make independent validation difficult even as big venture funding continues to flow to fusion startups seeking always‑on clean power.