TAE Technologies
🇺🇸 Foothill Ranch, US · Founded 1998 · Active
Also known as TAE, Tri Alpha Energy
TAE Technologies is a private fusion company in Foothill Ranch, California, founded in April 1998 as Tri Alpha Energy, with physicist Norman Rostoker of UC Irvine among its founders. It confines plasma in a field-reversed configuration, a self-contained ring of plasma current, heated and sustained by beams of neutral particles, and aims eventually to burn hydrogen-boron fuel, whose main reaction releases no neutrons. Its machines have included C-2, C-2U and C-2W (Norman); a planned successor, Copernicus, had been cancelled by November 2025. TAE also runs TAE Power Solutions and TAE Life Sciences. In December 2025 it announced a merger with Trump Media & Technology Group valued at over $6 billion, which World Nuclear News reported was expected to close in mid-2026.
- Sector
- Fusion
- Technology
- Field-reversed configuration
- Fuel
- Proton–boron-11, Deuterium–tritium
- Role
- Fusion developer
It is the operator of record for 4 devices, 2 of them operating.
Its recorded equity, $250m, is the 12th largest of the 25 organisations with a priced round here. Not every round is on record, so this is not its total raised.
Terms
- Field-reversed configuration
- A self-organised plasma ring that generates its own confining field, with no central coil. Compact and high-beta, but stability over long timescales is the open question.
- Proton–boron-11
- Called aneutronic because the main reaction releases no neutrons, though side reactions and impurities still produce some. Requires at least an order of magnitude more triple product than D-T. A p-¹¹B roadmap that skips D-T is a listed red flag.
- Deuterium–tritium
- Lowest ignition threshold; 80% of energy in 14.1 MeV neutrons. The reference fuel for every near-term net-gain claim.
Funding
- 2025-12-18Convertible note or SAFE$200 million unsecured convertible promissory note from Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), signed 18 December 2025 alongside an agreement to merge the two companies in an all-stock transaction. TMTG's balance sheet carries the $200 million note receivable at 31 December 2025 and 30 June 2026, so it was funded. A further $100 million is available at TAE's request once TMTG files its Form S-4; TMTG's second-quarter 2026 results release (10 August 2026) still says TMTG "intends to file" the S-4, so that tranche is not recorded. The merger itself was pending at that date, targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, and is not a financing. TMTG has no organisation record, so it is not linked as a participant.$200m
- 2022-07Equity round · Growth$250 million, which the release calls a Series G-2 and describes as closed (19 July 2022). Named investors include Google, Chevron and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas. The release also states $1.2 billion raised to date; that cumulative figure is the company's and is not a deal.$250m
Devices
People
- Dr. Michl BinderbauerChief Executive Officer
- Dr. Toshiki TajimaChief Science Officer
- Jeff WoodburyPresident and Chief Operating Officer
- Cedric BurgherChief Financial Officer
- Janet LeongChief Human Resources Officer
- Jim McNielChief Growth Officer
- Jonathan TorettaChief Revenue Officer
- Demetri AndrikosVice President, Associate Counsel
- Andrew CavazosVice President, Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations
- Jennifer Ensley-LoweVice President, Marketing
- Dr. Hiroshi GotaVice President, Corporate Technical Initiatives and Strategic Collaborations; Science Fellow
- Michael HartmanSenior Vice President, Finance
- Michael MeekinsVice President, R&D for TAE Technologies and TAE Life Sciences
- Dr. Sergei PutvinskiSenior Vice President, Fusion Energy