Helion Energy, chaired by Sam Altman, has achieved plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius—10 times hotter than the sun's core—marking a critical advance toward commercial fusion power. The milestone, reached at the Polaris prototype near Seattle, positions Helion to deliver electricity to the grid in Malaga, Washington, by 2028.

Unlike traditional fusion approaches that generate heat for steam turbines, Helion's magneto-inertial fusion technology captures electricity directly during the fusion process, potentially accelerating deployment. The company is simultaneously developing its 50-megawatt Orion commercial plant while building an assembly line manufacturing system—a strategy CEO David Kirtley credits for Helion's rapid seven-generation development pace.

Helion faces competition from Commonwealth Fusion Systems, backed by Bill Gates and Nvidia, which uses conventional tokamak designs and targets the early 2030s for its first 400-megawatt plant. While Commonwealth has deeper pockets and a more conservative timeline, Helion's unique approach using deuterium and helium-3 fuel, combined with its aggressive schedule, has drawn both investor confidence and industry skepticism. The achievement brings Helion closer to its goal of scalable, mass-producible fusion power that could help meet surging electricity demand from AI data centers.