Helion CEO David Kirtley on why fusion finally works
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About this episode
David Kirtley is the co-founder and CEO of Helion Energy, the fusion company. Helion has raised more than $1.5 billion at a $15.5 billion valuation, and Sam Altman is its biggest investor and former chairman. Before fusion, David worked on rocket and space propulsion.
In this episode of Summation, David and Auren discuss:
- Skipping the steam turbine and pulling electricity straight out of a star
- How a Best Buy network card helped make fusion possible
- Regulating a 150 million degree machine like a hospital proton beam
- One cent power, and what happens when AI stops being limited by electricity
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and David Kirtley on X at @Dkirtley
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