OpenAI Eyes 5 GW Fusion Power Deal With Altman-Backed Helion

OpenAI is negotiating a massive energy deal with Helion Energy, the fusion startup previously chaired by Sam Altman himself. The agreement would deliver 5 gigawatts of electricity to OpenAI by 2030 — enough to power a small country, or in this case, a whole lot of GPU clusters.

Altman has stepped down as Helion's board chair, likely to reduce the obvious conflict-of-interest optics of cutting a giant power deal between two companies he's deeply tied to.

The deal underscores just how desperate AI companies are getting for reliable, massive-scale energy sources. Training and running frontier AI models is absurdly power-hungry, and traditional grid capacity isn't keeping up.

Fusion energy remains commercially unproven, making the 2030 timeline ambitious. But if Helion delivers, this could reshape how AI infrastructure gets powered.