Everett-based Helion Energy has signed a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce to receive $175 million for next-generation semiconductor technologies aimed at commercial fusion energy. The company announced the agreement on Thursday.
The money comes through the CHIPS Research and Development Office. According to a press release, it will support research and development in Everett and help build substantial power module manufacturing capability. Helion also expects to receive $50 million in additional private investment for semiconductor research, manufacturing and advanced packaging.
"Building fusion power plants at scale requires us to accelerate the development of technologies like semiconductors that are critical to making fusion possible," said David Kirtley, Helion's CEO, in the release. He said the award and the private investment, which total $225 million, will let the company develop and manufacture advanced semiconductors in the United States that deliver the efficiency, reliability and performance its systems require.
The release explained that Helion's fusion systems rely on high-power pulsed electrical systems that must repeatedly and efficiently switch and recover from large amounts of energy. The semiconductors the company needs are currently available only from overseas manufacturers. Developing them domestically, the release said, will improve reliability, reduce costs and remove global supply-chain constraints as Helion moves toward commercial deployment.
More than $100 million of the funding will support semiconductor and advanced packaging research and development in Everett, bringing more than 100 jobs to the state, the release said. Helion plans to advance packaging capabilities designed to integrate multiple semiconductor devices into mass-deployable packages. Around $80 million will go toward research and development of semiconductor tooling, design and process development, in partnership with industry partner GlobalFoundries. The remaining funds are earmarked for further enhancements in semiconductor packaging and manufacturing automation.
The funding will support U.S. development and the transition to manufacturing of Helion's next-generation, high-voltage semiconductors. The release said they are designed to deliver higher efficiency, longer operating lifetime and more efficient cooling.
Bill Frauenhofer, executive director of Semiconductor Investment and Innovation at the Department of Commerce, said in the release that accelerating the research domestically "will support breakthroughs in America's ability to convert and deliver power to critical applications in defense, grid transmission, and advanced energy generation." The release also said American-made fusion energy delivered to the grid could change U.S. strategy from managing energy scarcity to harnessing clean energy abundance.
Under the terms described in the release, once a definitive award agreement is entered, the Department of Commerce would receive a $175 million non-voting interest in Helion, based on the company's most recent Series G preferred stock valuation, as payment for entering into the award. A holder of a non-voting interest is not entitled to vote, consent or withhold consent on any partnership matter, except as otherwise stated in the agreement.
The announcement follows several milestones for the company, the release said. Helion became the first private fusion energy company to demonstrate deuterium-tritium fusion and to reach plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius. It also closed a $500 million Series G investment round and is continuing to make progress on Orion, its first fusion power plant.
