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Michl Binderbauer, CEO of the privately funded alternative fusion developer TAE Technologies, applauds the report’s emphasis on public–private partnerships. “You are combining the strength of a DOE lab or university program with the end-product focus of the private sector,” he says, rather than the “more meandering” academic process. “A tighter adherence to schedules will help to drive efficiency in the process.”

Investments in private fusion ventures from billionaires, venture capital firms, philanthropists, and even oil and gas majors have grown in the past year. Measured by the amount of capital raised, TAE Technologies in Orange County, California, leads the pack at $750 million. That’s up by $150 million from early 2019, when named investors included the late former hedge fund manager Arthur Samberg, Charles Schwab, former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates and Venrock, the UK’s Wellcome Trust, several sovereign funds, and Alphabet. CEO Michl Binderbauer says that list remains largely unchanged.

The Samberg Family Office has been a lead investor in TAE Technologies since our launch in 1998, and Art played an instrumental role in our company’s trajectory ever since. As an early champion, to member of the Board of Directors, and ultimately Chairman, Art has been there for us every step of the way in his longterm commitment to TAE. It is thanks to his unwavering support, audacious vision, and generous spirit that we are now on the cusp of the transformational clean energy solution he was so determined to help bring to the world. On behalf of the entire TAE team, we thank Art for his longtime support; and we wish peace and comfort to Art’s wife Becky and the entire Samberg family. May his memory be a blessing and an inspiration to us all. [L-R: Art Samberg, Heather Samberg, Jeff Samberg, Debbie Samberg]

The modern quest for Promethean fire is underway in an anonymous office park in Foothill Ranch, California, an hour southeast of Los Angeles. In the park, along a meandering drive, you will find a huge, modern warehouse building with “TAE Technologies” emblazoned on the door. Inside, you will find a 100-foot-long, $200 million fusion-energy experiment named Norman. And in a second-floor office, upstairs from that looming machine, you will find the would-be Prometheus himself: Michl Binderbauer, TAE’s boyish-looking and relentlessly upbeat co-founder and CEO.

As CEO of TAE Technologies, the world’s largest private fusion reactor company, Michl Binderbauer is one of those who believes that fusion power could be on the near horizon – and is using artificial intelligence co-developed with Google to help make it a reality.