The thread that glows in the dark

Helion bags $425M in fresh funding despite fusion power still being a distant dream

Fusion energy startup Helion has yet to prove it can generate electricity, but that hasn’t stopped investors from dumping another $425 million into the venture.

Helion, whose board is chaired by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, announced an “oversubscribed and upsized” Series F funding round yesterday. With the addition of $425 million to its coffers, the startup claims it’s now worth $5.4 billion - despite failing to produce net-positive energy after more than a decade.

This latest round included more cash from Altman, Peter Thiel-founded Mithril Capital and others, also brought in new investors like the SoftBank Vision Fund, Silicon Valley funding giant Lightspeed Venture Partners, an unnamed “major university endowment” and more.

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Not great, not terrible.

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Our Best Look Yet At Britain’s New Dreadnought Class Ballistic Missile Submarine Design

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Air to air?

That seems like overkill…

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“Overkill” is a nuclear weapon’s middle name.

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Additional information, links:

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And the 2nd:

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Itty bitty fissile bombs without the core, even - that’s for kiddie-winkies.
Now, fully armed fusion devices…

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Columbium? :thinking: TIL

That X211 nuclear engine was ~3 times the weight of an F-35 engine with about 20% more thrust. Sheilding? Anyone? Do we count that in the weight? :thinking: :grin:

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Just make the wings larger. And in the 1950ies, radiation was good for you.

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