In summer of AI public offers, don’t forget fusion

Plus, Watch Duty wildfire app begins nationwide coverage of floods

In today’s edition:

— As Wall Street awaits the mammoth SpaceX IPO this week, a tiny nuclear fusion company just tripled its value

— Watch Duty: After the fire comes the flood (advisories)

— A damaging El Nino weather pattern could begin as soon as this month

— The EU is planning a regulatory framework to slash taxes on renewable power

— How each one of us generates an average of five pounds of trash a day

Helion’s 7th-generation Polaris prototype, which the company says is the first private fusion energy machine using deuterium-tritium fuel. Image: Helion.

Given the big SpaceX IPO later this week and the coming public debut of AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI, it might seem like AI has sucked all the oxygen out of the room on Wall Street this summer. But the demand from big tech companies for power to fuel their AI ambitions has left room for even more speculation.

Helion Energy, a nuclear fusion company that claims to be furthest along toward developing the nascent energy source on a commercial basis, raised $465 million late last week in a Series G funding round to develop a commercial fusion power plant to supply energy to Microsoft MSFT 0.00%↑ .

The deal values the Washington-based company at more than $15 billion, more than triple its valuation during its last funding round just a year ago. Investors include Thrive Capital, which led the round, Softbank, and Ford F 0.00%↑ Executive Chairman Bill Ford.

The deal is a further example of how the AI investment frenzy has captured the imaginations on Wall Street, despite its increasingly controversial status surrounding data centers across the country. Fusion energy, which combines atoms rather than splits them in traditional nuclear fission, is still largely unproven and nobody is sure it can yet scale to commercial development.

Still, the fear of missing out on the next big tech revolution has investors buying whatever they can that’s attached to the AI story. Energy companies of all sorts, including wind, solar, and gas have seen investors flock to their shares as the need for more power to drive AI becomes clear.

Helion itself is a private company, with no plans to go public at least until it can demonstrate commercial viability. But one of its investors is Nucor NUE 0.00%↑, a public steel company which has seen its shares increase more than 50% year to date. Most of that was based on improvements in its steel business but those hoping to gain some proxy exposure to the Helion speculation might also be in on the gains.

If you have ideas or suggestions for us, contact me directly at dcallaway@callawayclimateinsights.com.

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Tuesday’s subscriber insight

Flooding the zone at Watch Duty