In October, the Trump administration released a "Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap" to support the construction of commercial fusion power plants as soon as the 2030s. It may not exactly resemble a Manhattan Project for nuclear fusion, but the road map indicated the federal government would support a constellation of American fusion companies and no longer treat them like an academic project. 

Among several approaches, the road map pointed to a unique reactor concept — field-reversed configurations, "which could significantly reduce the cost of fusion power." It also referenced aneutronic fuels as being a potential source of "perhaps the greatest cost savings."

Two months later, in December, Trump Media & Technology Group 

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 — the publicly traded company behind President Donald Trump's Truth Social online platform — announced a merger agreement with TAE Technologies, an American fusion company that has helped pioneer field-reserved configurations and been a leader in the commercial development of aneutronic fuels.

The deal, which has not yet closed, represented an abrupt change of course for TMTG. Its stock soared two years ago as it became a popular way to bet on Trump's 2024 election win, but it has seen its shares drop by around 80% since that victory. The Florida-based company's moves to diversify by holding bitcoin 

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 and launching exchange-traded funds haven't come close to lifting its stock back to its prior heights.

Now, TMTG is pivoting toward nuclear fusion, a corner of the energy industry that has the Trump administration's support as it aims to start providing actual commercial power to the country's grid in a matter of years, after decades of experimentation. Nuclear fusion, which joins atoms, is the reaction that powers the sun; the technology remains unproven. Existing U.S. nuclear plants, which provide an estimated 18% of the country's electricity, rely on fission, which splits atoms.

But the Trump administration and its Energy Department are giving fusion a push from the federal government. Trump has issued executive orders to support the fusion industry and, in addition to providing its fusion road map, the Trump administration in November established an elevated Office of Fusion. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent federal agency, is in the process of finalizing a new regulatory framework for the fusion industry that some experts describe as a "light-touch" approach.