Microsoft's big bet on helium-3 fusion explained

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Microsoft's big bet on helium-3 fusion explained
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Magnets, not lasers, could be secret to endless power (if it actually works)

Microsoft is making a big bet to cut its carbon emissions with a staple of science fiction: helium-3 fusion power plants.

To be clear, if your only goal is to fuse hydrogen, the technology has existed for decades – just look up Farnsworth fusor. The trickier proposition is extracting more power than you put into the reaction in the first place. In other words, achieving a sustained fusion reaction that generates net-positive power.achieving fusion ignition.

Helion's bold claims have attracted the attention of investors, and it's certainly not hurting for cash. To date, the company has raised more than half a billion dollars, of which $375 million wasprovided by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Given what we know about the power requirements to train large language models like GPT-4, Altman's investments are hardly surprising. This is especially so when you consider they were trained in Microsoft datacenters.

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