[causi]

Microsoft Bets That Fusion Power Is Closer Than Many Think

"Bet" implies a potential for loss. This is a couch-cushion spare change level "bet". Microsoft probably spends more on printer ink every month than they stand to lose on this bet.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

It's a power purchase agreement.

They're going to get ~$50M worth of power. Either they're going to overpay for Fusion or overpay for energy from some other source if Helion can't deliver and has to pay for it via penalty.

It's not really much of a risk for MSFT.

But it's a great headline for Helion to pass on to clueless people.

[chx]

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/10/microsoft-agrees-to-buy-powe...

> Helion’s deal with Microsoft is to get 50 megawatts online,

Looking at solar costs https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/capital-costs... 50MW in solar would cost 50-100M and I can't imagine this could be much more expensive or it wouldn't be competitive at all. Microsoft annual operating expenses for 2022 were $114.887B so about a 1-2000 times more.