It has long been known that the founder of Microsoft Bill Gates invests heavily in nuclear fusion and in fact in research to obtain energy from it thermonuclear reaction. But now Microsoft agreed with nuclear fusion startup Helion Energy to buy from him energy. this is his first deal tech giant with a company operating in this area.

Helion plans to launch its first fusion plant by 2028, aiming to produce at least 50 megawatts of electricity. Part of this capacity will be bought by Microsoft, although it will be less than 1% of the total portfolio of sales contracts. electricity carbon-free energy, which currently stands at 13.5 gigawatts.

The agreement is designed to help Microsoft achieve its goals. changing of the climate and work carbon negative by 2030. Helion, for its part, is building its seventh working prototype and expects to demonstrate the ability to generate electricity in 2024, according to a company statement. But as far as is known, no company has yet obtained commercially viable power from nuclear fusion, although related experiments tend to get closer to the mark. It is significant that the US government laboratory, which made the largest discovery of thermonuclear fusion late last year, was unable to repeat its results in five consecutive experiments.

Despite these difficulties, Microsoft Vice President and Chairman Brad Smith said the company is “optimistic that the merger could be significant. technologies it will help the world move to clean energy.”

Nuclear fusion is not the only technology that has yet to prove its usefulness and application potential, but it has again attracted the trust and capital of Microsoft. The company, founded by Bill Gates, has also invested in the market for carbon dioxide removal and sequestration services. Both this and the merger require a large initial investment to start developing the two branches and keep costs down. Big tech companies like Microsoft and Stripe are leading the way, especially in the decarbonization market.

Despite the company’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, the report elaborates that over the past year, Scope 3 emissions, as those associated with Microsoft suppliers and customers are called, increased by 0.5%. Customers using Xbox consoles, steel and concrete used in data center construction, and silicon microprocessors are some of the biggest contributors to these emissions. However, overall, and despite Microsoft’s business growing 18% year-on-year in 2022, the tech giant’s emissions not only didn’t increase, but fell by 0.5%.