Seattle-based utility Helion Energy is negotiating a deal to supply OpenAI with major power, Axios reported Monday.
The deal being discussed would see OpenAI acquire 5 gigawatts of power by 2030, rising to 50 gigawatts by 2035, according to Axios, citing an unnamed source familiar with the discussions. By comparison, Washington’s Grand Coulee Dam – America’s largest hydroelectric dam – has a capacity of 6.8 gigawatts.
Helion has yet to demonstrate that its power generation technology is commercially viable. The company is currently running its seventh-generation prototype in Everett, Wash., and has raised more than $1 billion from investors — including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
Altman served as chairman of Helion’s board of directors for many years but has reportedly stepped down and is no longer involved with the board or current negotiations. He led Helion’s $500 million funding in 2021, personally invested $375 million, and participated in the company’s $425 million round in January 2025.
GeekWire has reached out to Helion for comment.
Helion recently climbed to the No. 1 on the GeekWire 200, our list of the top privately held startups in the Pacific Northwest.
The company is building its first commercial facility — a 50-megawatt plant called Orion — in Malaga, Wash. The plant is expected to start smashing atoms in 2028 and Microsoft has agreed to buy its power if the project succeeds.
The reported 5-gigawatt goal of the OpenAI agreement would be 100 times larger than that original facility.
Dozens of fusion companies around the world are racing to replicate the nuclear reactions that power the sun and stars, with the goal of producing unlimited, carbon-free energy. None have achieved effective binding power, although many are making incremental progress and signing comprehensive territorial agreements.
Skeptics argue that commercial consolidation is still years away, but the growing demand for clean energy in the energy data center and an electrified economy is driving interest and funding for consolidation.
As Helion develops its assembly technology, it also builds a 166,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. The site will include the thousands of capacitors needed to deliver large electrical surges to its fusion generator and capture the energy it produces.
Production is expected to begin at the facility later this year. It will help provide the approximately 2,500 capacitor units needed for the Orion plant, but is designed with extensive scaling in mind.
“These high volume lines are not for our Orion machine, but for the next machine,” Sofia Gizzi, Helion’s director of production, told GeekWire in October. “A factory operating at 50% of its design capacity or less can spit out Orion, no problem. But we’re looking beyond that to 2030.”
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