00:00:00
a lot of forecasters estimate that
00:00:01
energy production and demand on Earth
00:00:03
will grow to roughly 2x from where we
00:00:06
sit today by the end of the century and
00:00:08
I think that there's other ways to look
00:00:10
at the demand forecast which is that you
00:00:12
can look at GDP per capita and energy
00:00:14
consumption per capita over time and you
00:00:16
always see that for every one percent
00:00:17
increase in GDP per capita you see a 1.2
00:00:20
percent roughly increase in energy
00:00:22
consumption per capita and by that
00:00:24
measure based on population and GDP
00:00:25
growth through the century
00:00:27
we will need to produce five times more
00:00:30
energy than we make on Earth today by
00:00:32
the end of the century and you can't do
00:00:34
that by just pumping oil and gas out of
00:00:36
the ground
00:00:37
we need another technology or we need
00:00:39
you know some renewable systems to scale
00:00:40
up more quickly
00:00:42
and fusion presents this great kind of
00:00:44
sea change opportunity moment for how we
00:00:46
make energy leveraging the technology of
00:00:50
the Sun and so I'm really excited today
00:00:52
to invite the two most funded most high
00:00:56
profile Fusion technology entrepreneurs
00:00:58
uh Bob momgaard
00:01:01
and David kirtley CEOs of um
00:01:04
Commonwealth Fusion
00:01:06
and helion Bob as the founder of
00:01:09
Commonwealth spun out of MIT where he
00:01:11
got his PhD in applied plasma physics
00:01:13
and um he's raised more than two billion
00:01:16
dollars from Global Investors you heard
00:01:18
vinod talk about his original investment
00:01:20
in Commonwealth yesterday after Bob will
00:01:22
hear from David who founded helion after
00:01:24
15 years as a principal investigator and
00:01:27
fusion lead at msnw and before that
00:01:29
seven years as a scientist for the Air
00:01:31
Force research lab David got his PhD in
00:01:34
aerospace engineering from Michigan
00:01:36
helion's raised about 2.2 billion
00:01:38
dollars since its founding
00:01:40
with a recent massive 500 million dollar
00:01:42
funding round LED by Sam Altman who we
00:01:44
all know is the CEO of openai and
00:01:46
formerly ran y combinator
00:01:48
uh Sam invested 375 million dollars
00:01:51
personally in that round so uh please
00:01:53
join me they're each going to give a
00:01:54
presentation and then we are going to
00:01:56
come back and have a conversation with
00:01:58
both of them at the same time please
00:01:59
join me in welcoming Bob to the stage
00:02:02
[Music]
00:02:08
oh
00:02:11
and it said we open source it to the
00:02:13
fans and they've just gone crazy
00:02:16
[Music]
00:02:19
it's a lot of capital for Fusion it's
00:02:21
exciting
00:02:22
um so I'm setting off you know our
00:02:25
science morning so we're gonna later
00:02:27
hear about tiny things and viruses and
00:02:29
I'm going to start by talking about the
00:02:31
biggest thing there is
00:02:33
which is the universe so this is a
00:02:36
picture uh from the James Webb Telescope
00:02:38
and what that is is the oldest galaxies
00:02:40
that we can see and really what the
00:02:42
James Webb's telescope is is a really
00:02:44
fancy expensive camera to look at fusion
00:02:46
power plants
00:02:48
because that is everywhere you look it's
00:02:51
fusion power plants fusion power plants
00:02:53
are the things that built every single
00:02:55
atom that's in all of you that's in all
00:02:58
these buildings everywhere on earth and
00:03:00
the reason it works that way is because
00:03:02
the fusion reaction the reaction that
00:03:04
happens inside all the stars it's
00:03:06
actually the most prevalent reaction in
00:03:08
the entire universe that reaction
00:03:10
produces energy that's about 200 million
00:03:13
times more energy per Mass used than a
00:03:17
chemical reaction
00:03:18
so when you think about anything in your
00:03:20
life that's chemical oil gas 50 gigatons
00:03:23
a year CO2 divided by like
00:03:26
order 100 million and if you replace
00:03:29
that process with a fusion process
00:03:32
that's what you get at the end and
00:03:34
that's why we can have
00:03:36
billions of years old of a universe and
00:03:39
billions of years old of our own planet
00:03:44
and so what these companies are trying
00:03:46
to do there's like 70 Fusion companies
00:03:48
it's what we're trying to do is we're
00:03:49
trying to take that reaction
00:03:51
and put it in a bottle
00:03:53
in a machine that we can build here
00:03:56
and that we can build quickly
00:03:58
so there's many different ways to build
00:04:00
that type of machine we I would say
00:04:03
today don't know what the penultimate
00:04:04
Ultimate machine will look like but we
00:04:07
know that we're close enough to actually
00:04:08
start building them
00:04:09
and if you do this you end up with a new
00:04:12
type of power plant you end up with a
00:04:14
power plant that looks like a power
00:04:16
plant we already do meaning you can put
00:04:18
it somewhere it generates electricity it
00:04:19
generates heat that you can take to
00:04:21
electricity you can plug it in the grid
00:04:22
you can Finance it you can use existing
00:04:24
Supply chains
00:04:26
but now it doesn't have emissions and it
00:04:28
doesn't have basically it doesn't have
00:04:29
any fuel
00:04:30
and every one of your energy uses for
00:04:32
your entire life could be fulfilled with
00:04:35
like a single glass of water and so
00:04:38
that's like a sea change in how you
00:04:39
think about relation between our species
00:04:41
the planet and energy
00:04:44
so question is can you actually build
00:04:46
such machines
00:04:48
well right now
00:04:50
we're we're building them around the
00:04:53
world
00:04:53
so this is a picture of combo Fusion
00:04:56
systems site it's in a suburb about an
00:04:59
hour outside of Boston and this two
00:05:02
years ago was a forest uh old military
00:05:05
base and in the upper uh side of this is
00:05:08
a factory a factory to make
00:05:11
magnets key pieces of fusion machines
00:05:14
but down in front is a prototype uh
00:05:18
fusion power plant it's a machine we
00:05:20
call spark and that machine is the
00:05:22
basically the culmination of about 60
00:05:26
years of science uh done around the
00:05:29
world we've been working on Fusion since
00:05:31
actually before we split the atom and in
00:05:33
that time the scientists at National
00:05:35
Labs and universities have gotten better
00:05:38
and better at building successive
00:05:39
generations of those machines and in
00:05:41
fact the performance of those machines
00:05:43
and the metrics you care about if you're
00:05:45
into plasma physics like I am those that
00:05:47
performance has gone up faster than
00:05:49
Moore's Law
00:05:50
and it's now sitting at the point where
00:05:52
you can almost get more power out from
00:05:54
this reaction than it took to make the
00:05:57
reaction start
00:05:58
to do that what you're building is
00:06:00
You're Building machines that literally
00:06:02
like make Star stuff they're machines
00:06:03
that have
00:06:04
plasmas inside them that are 100 million
00:06:06
degrees
00:06:07
it's like five times hotter than the
00:06:09
center of this the sun you know
00:06:10
Fahrenheit Celsius doesn't really matter
00:06:12
100 million huge number
00:06:14
and
00:06:17
and they do this
00:06:20
um they do this using basically like
00:06:22
stuff that we already know how to build
00:06:25
it's kind of a unique situation like
00:06:26
this is the size of a Walmart built by
00:06:28
companies that build Walmarts
00:06:30
and it's got buildings that house
00:06:32
equipment that is like equipment that
00:06:34
you use to do electrified natural gas or
00:06:36
solar plants and in the center and that
00:06:39
square in the center is a room
00:06:42
where you put the fusion machine
00:06:44
and that's what that room looks like
00:06:47
and this we just opened this room like
00:06:50
three four four or five days ago
00:06:53
um and that Center hole in the middle is
00:06:55
where we're going to start assembling a
00:06:57
fusion machine that will make about 100
00:07:00
megawatts of heat at somewhere around
00:07:03
there will be more power out than in
00:07:04
maybe even like 10 times more power out
00:07:07
than in and that's based on all this
00:07:10
science that's been done with a series
00:07:11
of partners that include MIT National
00:07:14
Labs around the world all peer-reviewed
00:07:17
published and what the predictions are
00:07:18
going to be and we think that this
00:07:20
machine will be the first commercial
00:07:21
machine to make more power up than in
00:07:24
you can see on the bottom what it will
00:07:25
look like when it's installed there and
00:07:28
we're about halfway through the
00:07:30
manufacturer and assembly of uh this
00:07:32
machine so when you think about two
00:07:34
billion dollars raised like tough Tech
00:07:36
and like what it takes to actually you
00:07:38
know Bend curves and climb it this is
00:07:41
the type of stuff that you have to be
00:07:42
willing to do you have to be willing to
00:07:44
take science Cutting Edge
00:07:48
wrap it with the ability to execute
00:07:50
things like manufacturing and
00:07:52
Construction in a package that you could
00:07:54
scale because our climate crisis is
00:07:57
going to require us to build somewhere
00:07:59
on the order of
00:08:01
ten thousand to a hundred thousand power
00:08:04
plants
00:08:05
so today there's about 60 000 power
00:08:07
plants in the world
00:08:08
and so you're not going to solve this by
00:08:10
like making little things you know solve
00:08:12
this by making big bets big changes and
00:08:15
that's even just to replace what we have
00:08:17
today
00:08:18
we talk about 5xing the amount of energy
00:08:20
we're going to use uh on the planet
00:08:23
Earth Humanity like that's one of the
00:08:26
largest construction booms in human
00:08:28
history and so we're trying to get it
00:08:30
started here and one of the great things
00:08:32
that you can see about Fusion is that
00:08:35
once you get the formula figured out
00:08:37
once you figure out how to build one of
00:08:39
these machines you get a thing that
00:08:40
makes a lot of energy out of a small
00:08:42
thing that you manufacture
00:08:44
thing that you build a factory to make
00:08:46
more of
00:08:47
and it's a factory that kind of looks
00:08:49
like an automobile Factory or like a
00:08:51
rocket Factory in fact a lot of the
00:08:53
people at this company came exactly from
00:08:56
those areas that were trained in new
00:08:58
space and new Automotive
00:09:00
which means like once you figure this
00:09:02
out you could build lots of these very
00:09:04
quickly and so this is some pictures
00:09:06
inside that factory on that site of us
00:09:08
building the different pieces that go
00:09:10
inside that Fusion machine
00:09:13
and we'll start to assemble that machine
00:09:16
uh
00:09:18
later this year and turn it on and let's
00:09:21
sort of 2025 time frame and get to Q
00:09:24
greater than one more power out than n
00:09:25
for the first time uh probably early
00:09:27
2026.
00:09:29
and that's part of a long-term plan that
00:09:31
we've been on in the last five years
00:09:32
since launching Commonwealth Fusion
00:09:34
systems we start with the science that
00:09:36
we already know how to do that's today
00:09:38
you can go and see Fusion machines
00:09:40
around the world we built out 150 Fusion
00:09:42
machines at National Labs and
00:09:44
universities coupled with an entirely
00:09:46
new type of technology in our case an
00:09:48
extremely strong magnet a magnet is made
00:09:50
out of a new type of superconductor not
00:09:53
the one that you read about recently
00:09:54
that was all bunk but the uh the one
00:09:57
that was previous Nobel Prize that
00:10:00
allows us to go to extremely high
00:10:01
magnetic fields which allows us to build
00:10:03
these machines that you could not have
00:10:05
built five years ago they're 10 times
00:10:08
smaller for the same performance using
00:10:10
the same science that we already know
00:10:11
how to do and they set up a power plant
00:10:14
like the one on the right that is like a
00:10:17
400 megawatt power plant like the size
00:10:19
of a coal plant so you can you can
00:10:21
imagine going to a coal site
00:10:23
taking out the boiler and putting in
00:10:25
this new kit
00:10:26
once it's proven and turning it on
00:10:29
pushing a button and having a whole
00:10:31
bunch of Heat come out and a reaction
00:10:33
that is the most common reaction in the
00:10:34
universe
00:10:35
take your hand off the button stopping
00:10:37
it put a string again and going
00:10:40
and doing that in a way that you could
00:10:42
then build over and over again that's
00:10:44
like the big promise
00:10:46
in terms of where people are
00:10:48
is it's the beginning of a race about
00:10:51
six billion dollars invested in Fusion
00:10:53
which means that one of like the the
00:10:54
most invested of the new energy
00:10:56
technology companies so when you think
00:10:57
about geothermal or batteries this is
00:11:00
actually an explanation battery this is
00:11:01
actually a similar scale and it's going
00:11:04
through a history of Technology path
00:11:06
it's like well worn and we can actually
00:11:08
Milestone where all these companies are
00:11:11
and all these techniques are you know
00:11:12
today you can go and see lots of
00:11:14
companies and lots of labs where they
00:11:16
make plasmas that sort of like the idea
00:11:18
of an airplane
00:11:20
there's some that can get Plasma's
00:11:21
pretty hot there's a few including the
00:11:23
companies we're talking about here who
00:11:25
can actually get plasmas into the right
00:11:27
conditions the 100 million degrees that
00:11:29
are insulated well enough that are in
00:11:31
the conditions for that reaction to
00:11:32
happen
00:11:33
and now we're at step four which is to
00:11:36
make these things make more power out
00:11:37
than in Q grade and one and we know
00:11:40
that's doable because actually in
00:11:42
December a very large laser in
00:11:44
California called nif created those
00:11:47
conditions granted in a completely
00:11:48
non-commercially relevant way but in a
00:11:51
scientifically relevant way created for
00:11:53
an instant picosecond those conditions
00:11:56
and now it's a race to build
00:11:58
things like spark to do that in a
00:12:01
commercial way
00:12:02
and after that there'll be plenty left
00:12:04
to do but we'll know that we've taken a
00:12:06
scientific idea and turned it into an
00:12:09
engineering project and a scaling
00:12:10
project
00:12:11
and we don't know what the world will do
00:12:13
with that
00:12:14
it's potentially something that could
00:12:17
you know really disrupt things and I
00:12:21
think as I think about everyone planning
00:12:23
you've got to be able to plan for that
00:12:25
kind of be able to build a fast track
00:12:27
on-ramp to these extremely disruptive
00:12:29
Technologies
00:12:31
and whether it's Fusion or Gene editing
00:12:34
I think that's where the future is and
00:12:36
it's an interdisciplinary problem and
00:12:38
it's a problem that takes audacity
00:12:41
Capital smart people all working
00:12:43
together so thank you that's that's
00:12:45
where we're at I'm looking forward to
00:12:47
the discussion thank you
00:12:54
and I'm excited to to welcome a
00:12:56
colleague here David curtly tell you the
00:12:58
other uh exciting things about Fusion
00:13:10
all right perfect thank you very much
00:13:11
Bob so my name is David Curley I'm a
00:13:13
founder of helion energy I'm excited to
00:13:15
talk about our approach to techno to
00:13:17
Fusion that we think rapidly accelerates
00:13:19
the timeline for fusion
00:13:21
um Bob I think did a great job of
00:13:22
talking about the history of fusion
00:13:24
where we come from and the speed of what
00:13:26
we want to get there I'm going to be a
00:13:27
little more selfish and talk about
00:13:28
myself today and give you a little bit
00:13:32
of the the fusion Journey I've been on
00:13:34
and why I've come from being a fusion
00:13:37
skeptic that I think many people in this
00:13:39
audience have
00:13:40
so I went into school in the academic my
00:13:44
academic part of my career to do
00:13:46
something what I thought was important
00:13:47
for the world and David did a really
00:13:49
great job of talking about the impact of
00:13:51
energy and the cost of electricity on
00:13:53
the world so I said great I'm gonna go
00:13:55
solve that problem
00:13:56
um and a little naively look to the
00:13:58
universe and said great they're fusions
00:14:00
out there it's where most of the mass
00:14:02
and the energy in the universe comes
00:14:04
from I should do that and we should
00:14:05
bring that here on Earth
00:14:07
um got into it I actually became an
00:14:09
expert in some of the inertial type
00:14:12
approaches like the laser systems
00:14:14
actually my specialty was anti-matter
00:14:15
anti-matter is cool but what what I
00:14:18
learned was that actually the
00:14:20
Technologies of the time when I was
00:14:22
learning that I learned in school those
00:14:24
approach us and we all sort of see that
00:14:26
in the world they're going to work but
00:14:28
when they do I will have already retired
00:14:31
if not like not actually be alive to
00:14:33
turn on the machines I was going to go
00:14:35
build and so I pivoted my career went
00:14:37
and built space propulsion systems and
00:14:39
Rockets plasma thrusters whole Hall
00:14:41
thrusters ion engines that kind of thing
00:14:42
and it wasn't until I met our core
00:14:45
founding team that I saw another way to
00:14:47
do Fusion uh that potentially rapidly
00:14:50
skips over some of the steps of what
00:14:53
others are doing so that's what I want
00:14:54
to introduce you to today
00:14:56
um our technology the way we want to do
00:14:58
Fusion that we believe gets gets
00:15:00
Humanity to Fusion as soon as possible
00:15:03
so um Bob did a great job of talking
00:15:06
about magnetic confinements of steady
00:15:08
Fusion trying to replicate what happens
00:15:10
in the sun there's inertial confinement
00:15:13
which is very high intensity picosecond
00:15:15
pulsed fusion and we do something which
00:15:18
takes some some of both of those
00:15:20
approaches
00:15:21
um we cleverly call it Magneto inertial
00:15:24
Fusion which does the sun in a bottle
00:15:27
take a magnetic field to hold that 100
00:15:29
million degrees but rather than trying
00:15:31
to hold on to it it get it hot enough
00:15:33
and ignite it we actually then squeeze
00:15:35
it as fast as possible with very large
00:15:37
pulsed electric currents and so that's
00:15:39
what we've been able to build today one
00:15:42
of the key this is a picture of our
00:15:43
sixth generation machine that we have up
00:15:46
in the Seattle area
00:15:47
and one of the keys to the approach to
00:15:49
this Fusion we're going to dig into the
00:15:51
technology a little bit and then talk
00:15:52
about the benefits but one of the key is
00:15:54
is that what we focus on is the
00:15:57
electricity part and I and I think that
00:16:00
for me getting into Fusion wasn't to
00:16:02
explore cool new technology is it was
00:16:04
actually to generate electricity and so
00:16:07
that's been our focus and so how we do
00:16:09
that is a little unique and we believe
00:16:11
that lets us build systems faster and
00:16:13
smaller and so let's dig into that
00:16:15
um you've seen some of the tokamex
00:16:17
systems with looks like big Donuts uh
00:16:20
the laser system is a giant sphere so we
00:16:22
decide we should go and do a cylinder
00:16:25
um and so these systems are long
00:16:27
elongated cylinders where we have on
00:16:30
either end we have our fuel injector
00:16:31
called formation but this is where we
00:16:33
put in the fuel put in this mixture of
00:16:36
hydrogen and helium that becomes the
00:16:38
Fusion fuel a center acceleration
00:16:40
section where we accelerate that to a
00:16:42
core and in that core is where we
00:16:44
compress think about a piston in a
00:16:46
combustion engine or we we can compress
00:16:48
that Fusion fuel and then also number
00:16:51
four on here is electricity recapture
00:16:54
for our systems we require big capacitor
00:16:56
Banks it's actually one of the hardest
00:16:57
parts of our technology is the
00:16:59
electronics the power electronics and so
00:17:01
we have a dedicated system to do that
00:17:03
and it's one of the enabling
00:17:04
Technologies for this way to do Fusion
00:17:06
is that when this was first theorized in
00:17:08
the 1950s we had no idea how to build
00:17:12
those pulse Power Systems that could
00:17:14
reliably and repeatedly do this but we
00:17:16
can do it today so here's a little
00:17:18
animation of how these systems work on
00:17:21
either end we inject our Fusion fuel
00:17:24
we heat it at this point it's relatively
00:17:26
cold it's about 5 million degrees or so
00:17:28
we accelerate to the center compression
00:17:30
area where we didn't squeeze it
00:17:32
increasing pressure and density and
00:17:34
temperature until we get to Fusion
00:17:35
conditions over 100 million degrees
00:17:38
these helions and deuterons fuse to form
00:17:41
helium or alpha particles and protons
00:17:44
those are trapped in that magnetic field
00:17:46
and as that that heat that that hot
00:17:48
plasma expands we pull that energy out
00:17:51
directly directly recapturing that
00:17:53
electricity sounds pretty Fantastical
00:17:55
I'm showing you a lot of um you know 3D
00:17:57
drawings and all that stuff the the fact
00:18:00
is though we built this
00:18:01
um
00:18:02
and this was the key for me this is when
00:18:04
I went from I was a skeptic and then I
00:18:07
we had this cool idea and we went out to
00:18:09
try to build it but we actually had to
00:18:10
build the thing we had to build it turn
00:18:12
it on prove that technology and so we
00:18:14
did that in 2008 we built a machine that
00:18:17
did thermonuclear for Fusion for the
00:18:19
first time uh that machine was about a
00:18:21
million and a half bucks
00:18:23
and it and it set records for
00:18:24
temperature density pressure I
00:18:28
personally helped build that thing a
00:18:29
little bit they don't let me touch
00:18:30
wrenches too much
00:18:32
um and actually produced Fusion
00:18:34
reactions with it and measured those
00:18:36
reactions and at that point I said look
00:18:38
holy [ __ ] we may have the answer to this
00:18:40
let's go try to figure out how to build
00:18:41
a business around it and as I think
00:18:43
we'll probably talk today that turns out
00:18:45
that's hard too
00:18:47
um but in the process of doing that
00:18:48
we've now built six machines that do
00:18:50
Fusion
00:18:51
um the light latest one we call Trenta
00:18:53
that one exceeded 100 million degrees
00:18:55
we're the first private company to do
00:18:57
that
00:18:58
um we did a DD Fusion we actually did D
00:19:01
helium-3 Fusion where we actually took
00:19:02
rare helium-3 infused it with deuterium
00:19:05
that again we think we're the first
00:19:06
company to ever do that maybe even the
00:19:08
first group to ever do that and then the
00:19:10
most important thing I think is we need
00:19:12
to recapture this electricity and so
00:19:15
that's the first machine we built with
00:19:16
private funding in 2014 was a machine
00:19:19
that took energy from those capacitors
00:19:21
and those pulse power and then very
00:19:23
quickly in microseconds put that energy
00:19:25
into a magnetic core and then and then
00:19:27
we then recovered that magnetic energy
00:19:29
back to the capacitors the key there is
00:19:31
we did that at 95 efficiency
00:19:34
and if you can do that that means the
00:19:36
fusion only has to do the five percent
00:19:37
and so we believe that means that you
00:19:39
can build Fusion systems orders of
00:19:41
magnitude smaller and faster and skip
00:19:43
over some of the big steps of cooling
00:19:45
towers and steam turbines and
00:19:46
inefficient systems you have to do and a
00:19:48
lot of that comes from looking at Fusion
00:19:50
not from just looking at the science
00:19:53
which is really critical but also
00:19:54
looking at the engineering I want to
00:19:56
build power plants that make electricity
00:19:57
and if that's your singular Focus if
00:20:00
that's your goal if that's where you're
00:20:01
you're targeted you make design
00:20:03
engineering decisions to get there
00:20:05
faster so that's what we were able to do
00:20:07
I think that a lot of the private Fusion
00:20:09
companies in the world are also now
00:20:10
targeting electricity how do we get
00:20:12
there and how do we get there fast
00:20:15
um so that's what we're doing now we're
00:20:16
building actually uh so in the pictures
00:20:18
you see here on the top right that's our
00:20:20
seventh generation machine we call this
00:20:21
one Polaris we're building that system
00:20:23
today up in Everett Washington outside
00:20:25
of Seattle uh and installing it in our
00:20:28
generator building
00:20:29
um we actually have an operational
00:20:30
plasma injector machine I love saying
00:20:32
plasma injector machine
00:20:34
um to actually do the fusion to start
00:20:36
that Fusion process to try to get to
00:20:38
even higher temperatures than that 100
00:20:40
million degrees that we did before and
00:20:42
we started manufacturing Mass
00:20:43
manufacturing those key components that
00:20:45
we can't get anywhere else in the world
00:20:47
of capacitors
00:20:48
um and so we're we believe the first U.S
00:20:50
manufacturer in decades to start
00:20:52
manufacturing capacitors here in the US
00:20:54
maybe we'll sell them one day but right
00:20:56
now we're using everything we can make
00:20:57
for Polaris for that next system
00:21:01
um and the exciting announcement
00:21:03
announcing thing uh it's exciting thing
00:21:05
we announced last earlier this year is
00:21:07
that we had our first customer it's kind
00:21:09
of a good thing for a fusion business
00:21:11
um and so uh we have our first customers
00:21:13
Microsoft we have a power purchase
00:21:15
agreement to build a power plant with
00:21:17
them to come online in 2028. uh This Is
00:21:20
50 megawatts 50 megawatts is about 40
00:21:22
000 homes
00:21:24
um and to do that in Washington state
00:21:25
it's pretty audacious goal uh five years
00:21:27
it's five very short years to go build a
00:21:30
system that makes commercial electricity
00:21:32
uh we believe we can do that because
00:21:33
we've built all these Fusion systems we
00:21:35
have an approach that actually radically
00:21:37
shrinks the amount of capital and the
00:21:39
timeline to build these and more
00:21:41
importantly we have that singular goal
00:21:43
of making electricity and getting it on
00:21:44
the grid is absolutely as fast as
00:21:46
possible
00:21:48
so that's a picture of the new generator
00:21:50
building we just built you can't see all
00:21:52
the manufacturing on the side there
00:21:54
um but I'm excited to be able to talk
00:21:57
today about the fusion business the
00:21:58
fusion industry and how we get from
00:22:01
being a fusion skeptic like I was to be
00:22:03
using a fusion Optimist and really an
00:22:06
Optimus for the future we need clean
00:22:08
power and we need it now thank you very
00:22:10
much
00:22:10
[Applause]
00:22:16
thank you
00:22:16
[Music]
00:22:21
the fourth seat
00:22:23
[Music]
00:22:35
thank you guys for being here
00:22:37
um this is obviously an exciting
00:22:40
challenge
00:22:42
a technically difficult one an important
00:22:44
one and an expensive one
00:22:46
I just want to talk a little bit about
00:22:48
the end state for each of you your point
00:22:50
of view
00:22:51
we think about energy prices there's a
00:22:54
lot of ways think about it but dollars
00:22:55
per kilowatt hours or pennies per
00:22:57
kilowatt hour right we buy power off the
00:22:59
grid in the U.S for 12 to 15 cents a
00:23:02
kilowatt hour
00:23:03
where do you guys think
00:23:05
these systems end up when you kind of
00:23:08
think about the the amortization cost
00:23:10
and what you're going to have to charge
00:23:11
to build these systems once you're at
00:23:13
scale once you're rolling these systems
00:23:15
out at scale what's your end goal for
00:23:17
price per kilowatt hour I think that I
00:23:20
think that's exactly the perfect
00:23:21
question to lead in
00:23:23
um that if you're doing a new technology
00:23:25
like this and your goal is electricity
00:23:27
it has to be competitive and it has to
00:23:29
be competitive at scale at large scale
00:23:31
and fusion has a nice opportunity to do
00:23:33
that you talk about what's the cost of
00:23:36
electricity it comes from op-x and capex
00:23:38
and Opex right our fuel for a 50
00:23:41
megawatt system you can uh with a pickup
00:23:44
truck worth of fuel you can actually
00:23:46
power that system for a decade and it's
00:23:48
clean and it's safe and it's it's low
00:23:51
cost we don't even include it in the
00:23:52
Opex budget the fuel cost is so low and
00:23:55
if we can get to a state where we have
00:23:56
less of phds in the control room the
00:23:59
actual operating cost then becomes
00:24:00
pretty negligible for those systems and
00:24:02
so then you're left with the capital and
00:24:03
so I think that's been our Focus is how
00:24:06
do we minimize the capital of those
00:24:07
systems and so we can get to a point
00:24:10
where we can be really cost competitive
00:24:11
and I'll give you straight answers is
00:24:13
that our goal with these with our
00:24:15
approach to Fusion where we directly
00:24:17
recapture the energy is to get to a cent
00:24:19
a kilowatt hour or less and you can do
00:24:21
that with Opex
00:24:24
I think an important point about this is
00:24:26
uh
00:24:28
you build these things they're capex you
00:24:30
eventually get very good at building
00:24:31
them and so when you look at the
00:24:33
probability curve uh you have very very
00:24:35
low numbers eventually like a system
00:24:38
like this is basically what the interest
00:24:40
rate is
00:24:41
is what the price power is
00:24:43
because you're just building capital and
00:24:45
there's no operating cost there's no
00:24:47
fuel and the capital you're building is
00:24:49
an order of magnitude less stuff than
00:24:52
say renewable so it allows you to get to
00:24:54
these very low numbers so
00:24:57
you guys have ever been on stage
00:24:59
together before like this
00:25:01
yeah I think so that's sitting next to
00:25:03
each other yeah right put a little extra
00:25:06
so I'm trying to yeah I'm trying to set
00:25:07
up a little Tesla Edison rivalry here AC
00:25:10
DC
00:25:13
but no no seriously there there is a
00:25:16
a different architectural approaches you
00:25:18
each have fairly distinct approaches to
00:25:21
getting these plasma to a dense enough
00:25:23
high enough energy State condition so
00:25:26
that they fuse and produce energy very
00:25:29
different approaches
00:25:31
and there are other approaches I think
00:25:32
there's by my track roughly six general
00:25:35
architectures for Fusion technology and
00:25:37
you guys are the experts tell me if I'm
00:25:39
wrong
00:25:40
how do we know you guys win why does
00:25:42
Tesla win why does Edison win and isn't
00:25:45
it the case that ultimately the price of
00:25:47
power is going to win and so whatever
00:25:49
architecture gets to the lowest price of
00:25:51
power is going to take the whole Market
00:25:52
yeah it's a really good question
00:25:54
um first you have to make it work right
00:25:58
like there's a lot of architectures and
00:26:00
like the odds that they all work are low
00:26:02
so we've taken the tact of like find the
00:26:06
architectures that you know are going to
00:26:07
work what's the lowest science risk that
00:26:09
you can do because that price of power
00:26:10
it's not so much architecture dependent
00:26:12
it's learning rate dependent right at
00:26:15
the end of the day the amount of stuff
00:26:16
in these things is all about the same
00:26:18
and So the faster you get there the
00:26:22
better your Cycles are the lower you're
00:26:24
going to drive that cost and there's a
00:26:26
Time component to that too we don't have
00:26:28
the time to wait so if Fusion was
00:26:31
available today we're buying it like we
00:26:32
you know no no shortage of customer
00:26:34
interest
00:26:35
but the real energy transition is in the
00:26:40
next decade and so we need something
00:26:41
that we can get there like now as soon
00:26:43
as possible so it's not so much like
00:26:45
that in state it might be interesting
00:26:47
from a futurist standpoint of what that
00:26:48
end state is it's the path to get there
00:26:50
that's going to really determine it
00:26:52
yeah I think our Focus has been Bobs is
00:26:55
mine as well is how do we move as fast
00:26:57
as possible how do we iterate how do we
00:26:58
test how do we build these because it's
00:27:00
that time that's that's driving and and
00:27:02
there's a huge Market you know 3 000
00:27:04
gigawatts of fossil power it's not
00:27:06
necessarily the case that one of you is
00:27:08
going to win and one of you is going to
00:27:09
lose
00:27:10
no it's a huge Market it's one out of
00:27:12
every 12 like so it's absolutely huge
00:27:15
you think about the what's in front of
00:27:16
us to redo all the infrastructure like
00:27:18
we're there's no way a single company is
00:27:20
going to address that entire thing uh
00:27:22
and also it's not the case that like the
00:27:25
absolute ultimate you know optimized
00:27:27
thing is going to win it's going to be a
00:27:28
package thing like you know the car you
00:27:30
buy today the way you control the way
00:27:32
you drive it looks like the car that
00:27:33
Henry Ford built it's not optimized it's
00:27:36
not how you got there I have a two-part
00:27:39
question for you I think we all as you
00:27:42
know lay people not uh in the industry
00:27:44
and in the trenches in the arena with
00:27:46
you doing this our question is just and
00:27:49
just
00:27:50
very brief on this answer from each of
00:27:52
you because the second part is more
00:27:54
important I think what are the chances
00:27:56
uh that collectively the you know half
00:27:59
dozen startups actually get this done in
00:28:02
our lifetimes what do you put that at
00:28:04
you know let's say in the next 20 30
00:28:05
years what are the chances we actually
00:28:07
are this is a meaningful part of our
00:28:10
energy mixture in the next 20 or 30
00:28:12
years yeah 100 yeah that's 10 years if
00:28:15
you had to
00:28:16
scaling in the next 10. yep like because
00:28:19
3 000 gigawatts of replacement is going
00:28:20
to be hard okay well that that's the
00:28:22
need for it but okay you you're both
00:28:24
convinced it's going to happen
00:28:26
so then knowing that you know that
00:28:29
how do you advise the world to look at
00:28:31
global warming fossil fuels because
00:28:34
we're having this very vibrant debate
00:28:35
what does happen mean happen means net
00:28:38
positive energy no no like buy Power
00:28:41
into your refrigerator from Fusion
00:28:43
got it so then how would that inform how
00:28:47
we should look at fossil fuels because
00:28:50
you have a group of people who are
00:28:52
debating fossil fuels and it's become
00:28:55
quite religious with global warming Etc
00:28:57
you guys are
00:28:58
you know scientists who understand
00:29:00
global warming and everything do we need
00:29:02
to even worry about the energy mixture
00:29:04
today if you're going to get this done
00:29:06
and should we be sweating global warming
00:29:08
as much as we are fossil fuel use if the
00:29:11
solution is here you know like and you
00:29:13
guys are so confident it's going to be
00:29:14
there it's a good question yeah good
00:29:16
question 50 gigatons a year for 10 years
00:29:18
is a lot of carbon into the atmosphere
00:29:21
in a place where we are already at our
00:29:23
limits so like we need to do this
00:29:25
transition and we need to be ready to
00:29:26
build out at a very large scale every
00:29:28
zero carbon energy source that you have
00:29:30
because the energy needs that you we
00:29:34
talked about earlier they're terrifying
00:29:36
like if we need this solution for Fusion
00:29:39
but we also need the other things got it
00:29:40
so it's not even going to be enough to
00:29:42
solve that problem and then
00:29:44
two of the biggest problems the world
00:29:46
faces getting this carbon out of the
00:29:49
atmosphere and I guess water and both of
00:29:53
those a lot of the taking carbon out of
00:29:56
the atmosphere is an energy question
00:29:58
and desalinization is obviously an
00:30:00
energy question because you're going to
00:30:01
push water through screens so maybe just
00:30:05
briefly from each of you
00:30:07
your optimism for the world
00:30:09
knowing what you know from being in the
00:30:12
trenches every day
00:30:13
you know food insecurity
00:30:16
Energy Water all of these things you
00:30:19
know are seem to be really tied so so
00:30:22
should we be as pessimistic as I think
00:30:24
people in the world right now are now
00:30:26
how do you look at the world when you go
00:30:27
to bed at night so long term I mean I
00:30:29
think we should be very optimistic but
00:30:31
those problems exist today and we need
00:30:33
to be moving as fast as we can to get
00:30:34
there so where there's sun is shining we
00:30:36
should have solar panels where the wind
00:30:37
is blowing we should have wind power and
00:30:39
that's still not enough I believe anyway
00:30:41
and David mentioned the power uses
00:30:43
doubling over the over this decade I
00:30:46
think that that doesn't include
00:30:47
electrification carbon uh removal
00:30:51
hey I think it way underestimates what
00:30:54
we actually can do and what we can do if
00:30:57
the power the cost of powers is low
00:30:58
enough and it sidesteps the geopolitics
00:31:00
and some of the other challenges of
00:31:01
other low-cost sources of carbon-free
00:31:03
power so on the the question about how
00:31:06
it all ties together I look at it as in
00:31:09
the end there are only two fundamental
00:31:11
markets energy and creativity and like
00:31:14
with those two things notice they didn't
00:31:15
say human creativity right like with
00:31:18
those two things like you can do all
00:31:19
these other stuff right right and and so
00:31:22
like the faster we get to the things
00:31:23
that have massive scale in those two
00:31:26
things the better off we're going to be
00:31:28
are we investing enough confusion right
00:31:30
now because you guys are working with
00:31:32
the Venture Community I think largely I
00:31:34
don't understand why we're you know
00:31:36
spending all this money on Renewables
00:31:38
debating fossil fuels all this stuff and
00:31:41
and not really going for this I don't
00:31:43
want to call you what you're doing a
00:31:44
Hail Mary but it's a long ball and why
00:31:47
are we not just pushing a lot more
00:31:49
Government funding into this project if
00:31:51
it even had we talked about implied odds
00:31:53
yesterday over and over if this does
00:31:55
have a you know let's say they're
00:31:56
delusional and they're it's going to
00:31:58
happen is because they're Founders what
00:32:00
do you put it at the chances that they
00:32:01
succeed in the next 10 to 20. well I've
00:32:03
told investors that I've spoken with
00:32:04
that I think there's a hundred percent
00:32:06
chance that the portfolio of 70 Fusion
00:32:08
companies that exist today that are
00:32:09
pursuing this technology will succeed
00:32:12
and that we will get
00:32:13
in the next 20 viewers at scale right so
00:32:18
um I don't know which architecture wins
00:32:20
I don't know which company wins I don't
00:32:21
know who gets there first I don't know
00:32:22
how quickly they each of them can scale
00:32:23
it's hard for me to handicap that and I
00:32:25
don't have you know a sovereign wealth
00:32:27
funds capacity to build a portfolio of
00:32:30
these Investments but that would be the
00:32:31
right strategy I've told folks I think
00:32:33
that the index on where things are
00:32:35
valued today if you took all the fusion
00:32:36
companies and their total market value
00:32:37
today I would 100 buy that [ __ ] index
00:32:40
yeah so that would argue for one of the
00:32:43
things I thought was inspiring chamoth
00:32:45
about yesterday's discussion was you
00:32:47
were talking about you know how do we
00:32:49
allocate resources and then we were
00:32:50
being challenged by some of the speakers
00:32:51
well what can you do and I think this
00:32:54
framing where you're talking about
00:32:55
Capital allocation
00:32:57
you guys are convinced you're going to
00:32:58
do it if it feels like there's a
00:33:00
disconnect between the politicians and
00:33:02
how they're spending the resources that
00:33:04
we are all giving them can we hear how
00:33:06
the IRA
00:33:07
serves this opportunity yeah
00:33:10
um so I want to make sure that just
00:33:12
throwing money at a problem unlimited
00:33:14
money at a problem uh I was actually
00:33:16
just having a conversation with Sam
00:33:17
Altman about this
00:33:19
um doesn't actually always speed it up
00:33:20
you actually have to do it in the right
00:33:22
way with the right targets right uh
00:33:24
delivering fusion power and it costs 10
00:33:26
cents a kilowatt hour doesn't actually
00:33:28
solve the problem it's got to be that
00:33:30
low-cost solution so we need to make
00:33:31
sure we're focused on how do we do that
00:33:33
for the IRA I mean a lot of its focus is
00:33:35
manufacturing a lot of its focus is
00:33:37
scaling Manufacturing in the United
00:33:39
States and so I think that is really
00:33:41
valuable and more things like that that
00:33:43
are less focused on demonstrating are
00:33:45
you going to get some of those dollars
00:33:46
we'll see yeah you have to prove some
00:33:49
stuff before you can access them right
00:33:51
um so on the manufacturing side there's
00:33:52
lots of opportunities to actually bring
00:33:54
manufacturing so capacitors are a good
00:33:56
example right um our current system 90
00:33:58
of the capacitors that we are going to
00:34:00
put into it were purchased overseas
00:34:02
because we weren't able to scale our
00:34:03
manufacturing internally fast enough to
00:34:05
build them all ourselves and Bob you
00:34:06
have your own magnet Factory do you get
00:34:08
funding is there funding opportunity for
00:34:10
you to support that effort yeah there is
00:34:12
but it's not nearly what you need and
00:34:13
that's just you know overall like the
00:34:15
energy transition needs somewhere
00:34:16
various estimates put about nine
00:34:18
trillion dollars a year globally and we
00:34:20
are at a tenth of that and so I often
00:34:22
get frustrated with the capital
00:34:23
allocation about like how we're
00:34:25
splitting the small numbers that we're
00:34:26
splitting now it's like no they just
00:34:27
need to be bigger numbers right and it's
00:34:29
not a question of do you invest in Next
00:34:30
Generation technology versus stuff that
00:34:32
you can like literally go today take a
00:34:34
smoke stack down and put a solar panel
00:34:37
solar farm there it's not it's not
00:34:39
either or here the whole pie has to go
00:34:41
bigger Bob when you when you hear
00:34:43
freeburg's theoretical proposal is there
00:34:46
a way to manifest that into an actual
00:34:49
Financial device of hey here's 70
00:34:51
private companies I'm going to get five
00:34:53
percent of each and put it into a
00:34:54
private company index no no it's not
00:34:57
possible
00:34:58
um
00:35:01
the problem is that the amount of capex
00:35:04
that we will need to make this a reality
00:35:06
is so gigantic and I think you guys are
00:35:08
honest about that that unfortunately you
00:35:11
eventually replace the Venture
00:35:13
capitalists with tens or hundreds or
00:35:15
even a few billion dollars
00:35:17
with the Sovereign wealth funds that you
00:35:19
need with hundreds of billions and
00:35:21
trillions of dollars and what happens
00:35:23
when you get there is that you replace
00:35:25
technical people with non-technical
00:35:27
people who have to then determine which
00:35:30
is going to win and the way that they do
00:35:32
that and this is sort of my question for
00:35:34
you guys because you'll have to get
00:35:36
prepared for this so you might as well
00:35:37
take a shot at it today
00:35:39
they'll hire consultants and they'll
00:35:41
hire other people and they'll say red
00:35:42
team the alternative right they'll look
00:35:44
at you and they'll say it's tritium
00:35:45
breeding rates they'll look at you and
00:35:47
they'll say well it's a probabilistic
00:35:48
generation of protons and who the [ __ ]
00:35:49
knows all this stuff is what they'll say
00:35:52
some will be right some will be wrong
00:35:54
it would be great whatever you're
00:35:56
comfortable doing you can either red
00:35:57
team hin or you can red team yourself
00:35:59
but I would love to understand the rate
00:36:01
limiting technical thing that you're the
00:36:03
most worried about whether it's his
00:36:04
solution or your own and vice versa
00:36:07
okay I'll I'll start off so I look at it
00:36:10
as a portfolio approach
00:36:12
this approach right very interesting
00:36:14
from a what's the final State look like
00:36:16
it's a simpler machine right
00:36:18
more interest but the like question is
00:36:21
can you make it work from a plasma
00:36:22
physics standpoint so that says what's
00:36:23
the data look like on the plasma right
00:36:25
how's that going that's the type of data
00:36:27
I'd ask for on our approach on a red
00:36:29
team is like can we get to the cost
00:36:31
right can we simplify it plasma looks
00:36:33
pretty good it's at the right right
00:36:35
parameters already well how simple can
00:36:37
you make that machine so you look at our
00:36:39
receipts you look at our Factory right
00:36:41
because that's where the risks are you
00:36:42
concerned about breeding time for you
00:36:43
like no no it's like we know the
00:36:45
breeding works because that's the way
00:36:47
the the weapons work
00:36:49
and that breeding is at like 1.1 times
00:36:51
roughly enough yeah so it's 20 years
00:36:53
then to get basically no you you start
00:36:55
it's like a you have enough to start now
00:36:57
that you go on an exponential okay
00:37:00
and that's your first couple systems you
00:37:02
said right yeah yeah enough to do the
00:37:04
first 10 systems at least and David how
00:37:06
would you yeah so um you know I would
00:37:08
agree I appreciate the intellectual
00:37:10
honesty thank you for that like it's
00:37:11
it's hard to do that but thank you
00:37:13
um and and um and and I actually kind of
00:37:15
agree with Bob's assessment that our
00:37:17
approach to Fusion uh the FRC
00:37:19
compression was invented in the 80s not
00:37:21
in the 60s and so like yes there's been
00:37:23
lots of scientists and lots of published
00:37:25
papers including by us a decade ago on
00:37:27
this but there's still work to be done
00:37:29
as we're going to push those boundaries
00:37:30
and prove in our system the thing I
00:37:32
worry most about is okay great we have
00:37:35
these beautiful energy recovery systems
00:37:37
operating at 95 efficiency that cut the
00:37:39
cap-backs in half or or more but they
00:37:42
have to work at that high efficiency and
00:37:44
if if we fail if it's operating at five
00:37:46
percent less efficiency that means I
00:37:47
have to do more Fusion now they get
00:37:49
bigger they get more expensive enough
00:37:51
and so
00:37:52
of these specific helium Isotopes on
00:37:55
planet Earth that you can actually like
00:37:56
generate
00:37:57
yeah so um both I think both both of us
00:38:00
will think about the fuel system in
00:38:01
terms of a tritium or the helions and
00:38:03
where does that come from
00:38:05
um for us we make it deuterium plus
00:38:07
deuterium fusing yeah and you make
00:38:09
helium that that presupposes you have a
00:38:11
very efficient way to do Fusion exactly
00:38:13
and so that's that again comes back to
00:38:15
just to connect for everyone deuterium
00:38:17
is a hydrogen atom with a an extra
00:38:19
Neutron in the nucleus and some
00:38:23
percentage of water has deuterium in it
00:38:26
so it's a It's relatively abundant is
00:38:28
that fair to say and yeah
00:38:30
tritium is less abundant so we need to
00:38:33
make tritium uh in order for systems
00:38:35
that rely on tritium for their
00:38:37
technology Fusion to work all the water
00:38:39
you drank out there it's got deuterium
00:38:40
in it and my final question
00:38:43
um
00:38:48
you wouldn't work without it actually
00:38:49
yeah that's great but pretty I'm a
00:38:50
little different but how how do you guys
00:38:53
think assuming that the technical
00:38:55
um issues are sort of packaged in a way
00:38:57
where now we have this repeatable thing
00:39:00
how do you get the local politician
00:39:03
to approve
00:39:06
what they will look at is a nuclear
00:39:07
reactor and what unfortunately
00:39:10
The Blob will have their own viewpoint
00:39:12
on from being installed all around the
00:39:16
country how does that how does that part
00:39:18
work which has nothing to do with
00:39:19
science unfortunately and is very
00:39:21
emotional and it's it's very you know
00:39:22
there's a lot of regulatory capture
00:39:24
there when we broke ground on that
00:39:25
facility I showed that's a bedroom
00:39:27
community of Boston we had had no
00:39:29
agreement of who would even regulate it
00:39:31
because it's totally open field right
00:39:33
entirely new technology right and so you
00:39:35
have a social acceptance angle you also
00:39:37
have just a pure like legally who's
00:39:39
going to be the person who's going to
00:39:41
tell you to shut it down right and you
00:39:43
have to solve both of those and they're
00:39:44
different they're related but they're
00:39:45
different and so it's been an
00:39:46
interesting experience to do that at
00:39:49
that site something that just happened
00:39:51
is that the nuclear Regulatory
00:39:52
Commission in the United States just
00:39:54
made a ruling after two years of review
00:39:55
that all fusion power plants will be
00:39:58
regulated like particle accelerators not
00:40:00
like fission plants that goes from a
00:40:02
billion dollar regulatory overhead to 10
00:40:04
million dollar regulatory overhead so
00:40:07
that machine I just showed that's
00:40:08
regularly by the state of Massachusetts
00:40:09
the same way that a Hospital Cancer
00:40:11
Treatment Center is so boom legal piece
00:40:14
way down right public acceptance we've
00:40:17
done we've done polls as an industry
00:40:18
Association that showed that the public
00:40:20
acceptance of fusion if message the
00:40:23
right way so avoiding trigger words and
00:40:24
things like that the people
00:40:27
is the trigger word
00:40:33
they become pretty excited about it
00:40:35
right you have this like moment of
00:40:36
conversion right where people go from
00:40:38
Curious to like yes we need that now and
00:40:41
that's been a broadly scene phenomenon
00:40:44
we got to get it right right and like
00:40:45
the chattering classes and you know the
00:40:47
opposition is going to eventually come
00:40:49
when these things are more real we have
00:40:51
time today to like
00:40:53
set the momentum and lay the groundwork
00:40:56
and I can add two more details on that
00:40:58
in that our goal is not just the cost of
00:41:01
the regulatory path for instance it's
00:41:02
speed we went from 10 or 20 years for a
00:41:05
you know a nuclear reactor in Georgia
00:41:07
where like helion's been regulated by
00:41:09
the state since 2018 and our permits
00:41:11
take six or nine months we are licensed
00:41:13
we're inspected whole nine yards and it
00:41:15
all exists it's not new regulation it
00:41:17
totally exists just for hospitals and
00:41:20
then the public acceptance piece is
00:41:22
again speed and so what we do is try not
00:41:24
to do what the nuclear industry did as
00:41:26
hide away and say don't worry about
00:41:28
what's happening here like what we try
00:41:30
to do is we show Hardware we tweet about
00:41:32
it social media is here now and that
00:41:33
helps and so we're out there showing
00:41:35
Hardware what we're building how we're
00:41:36
building it what the dangers are let's
00:41:38
be honest about it so that we can
00:41:40
actually address those intellectually
00:41:41
honestly with everyone
00:41:43
um let me ask one more question which I
00:41:46
think I have a final one but good okay
00:41:48
um that I think everyone's asked
00:41:50
which is why now
00:41:52
we've talked about this for 70 80 years
00:41:57
um this has been theorized this has been
00:41:59
part of an experimentation program
00:42:01
somewhere so everywhere for a long time
00:42:03
can you talk a little bit about what's
00:42:06
changed in technology all the underlying
00:42:08
technologies that allow us to do this
00:42:10
today is it Electronics photonics
00:42:15
software and AI low-cost electronic
00:42:18
components we talked about this back in
00:42:21
March David but Bob why don't you kick
00:42:23
it off and just help us understand why
00:42:25
this isn't just BS because it's always
00:42:27
been 20 years away from having free
00:42:29
abundant energy what's changed yeah so
00:42:31
one the science the science has advanced
00:42:33
tremendously we have predictive
00:42:35
capability of these machines the same
00:42:37
way that we have predicted capability of
00:42:38
like how to build a plane right
00:42:40
to the adjacent Technologies it's like
00:42:43
and those adjacent Technologies whether
00:42:45
it's magnets or high power Electronics
00:42:48
they've all benefited from huge
00:42:50
investments in the last 30 years so
00:42:51
basically been Warehouse are now being
00:42:53
applied and three the idea that like
00:42:55
software's eating the world well it
00:42:57
didn't really like you need the mouth
00:42:58
and like that mouth is Advanced
00:43:01
manufacturing that mouth is how to turn
00:43:02
a software business into the ability to
00:43:04
manifest Hardware like that works those
00:43:07
are all combining here with this very
00:43:09
big poll
00:43:10
and and I would just just I love all the
00:43:13
technology answer but also there's a
00:43:14
various uh famous quote in the 1980s of
00:43:18
what it would take to get fusion and
00:43:20
they put budgets forward and nobody
00:43:22
wanted to do it there was no investment
00:43:24
um and the quote is the world will have
00:43:26
Fusion when it needs it and look at the
00:43:28
capital investment infusion into
00:43:30
companies it is pretty striking I've
00:43:32
talked to a lot of investors who are
00:43:33
throwing whatever they can at it because
00:43:35
the world needs it yeah we're doing the
00:43:39
prep call for this you know we're having
00:43:40
an interesting discussion amongst the
00:43:41
besties of you know obviously
00:43:43
applications on Earth for energy but you
00:43:46
know when we get out into the stars and
00:43:47
you know the mission that elon's working
00:43:49
on to get to Mars um Freeburg was
00:43:51
wondering and sax particularly well this
00:43:53
technology help us get to Mars or
00:43:56
perhaps even Uranus
00:44:17
please join me in thanking Bob and David
00:44:19
[Applause]
00:44:22
we'll let your winner slide
00:44:25
Rain Man
00:44:26
[Music]
00:44:30
Kim
00:44:34
[Music]