Helion's unorthodox approach to fusion power and relative secrecy has earned it plenty of fans — and critics. But don’t count its investors among the naysayers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved.

A nuclear fusion startup backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman has raised nearly half a billion dollars to build what it hopes to be the world’s first power plant using the next-generation energy source.

According to TechCrunch, Helion will use its $425 million funding round to upgrade its manufacturing capabilities. The company currently relies on external suppliers to provide it with capacitors, a type of energy storage device. Helion hopes that moving capacitor manufacturing in-house will enable it to significantly speed up production.