[moh_maya]

From [0] ‘ This is a binding agreement that has financial penalties if we can’t build a fusion system,” Helion founder and CEO David Kirtley tells The Verge. “We’ve committed to be able to build a system and sell it commercially to [Microsoft].”

Assuming the financial penalties are a significant fraction (i.e they are, say, greater than 5%) of the agreement value, I would interpret it as a more serious / confident commitment and expression of intent and viability, than just a contract that’s hope + way to support.

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/10/23717332/microsoft-nuclea...

[roywiggins]

If they can't build a fusion system, aren't they sort of bust anyway?

[hangonhn]

Isn't their plan B being an economical way of generating helium-3? Their power generation plan sounds dubious but the helium-3 production might make some sense.

[nine_k]

Who is a major consumer of ³He? Medical imaging?

[giarc]

They'd likely have some IP that could be of value to creditors.

[roywiggins]

at the point you're worrying about paying creditors off with your IP, you're... bust.

[htag]

Microsoft would have a claim as a creditor. It's more than nothing, but it is a paper promise.

[aziaziazi]

What’s an IP in this context please ?

[__MatrixMan__]

It's like taking an idea hostage. If you fail to pull it off, you make sure that nobody else has the chance to try it without first paying you for that privilege. It's supposed to help somehow.

[actionfromafar]

Bookmarked.

[joshmarlow]

Intellectual Property - so there might be trade secrets, patents, etc developed in the course of research. Even if the business goes bust, they might have learned valuable lessons.

[ComputerGuru]

Intellectual property. Patents, primarily, but also internal know-how and private research.

[femto113]

They definitely have valuable IP already: whatever slide deck/demo reel/kompromat they used to pull this nonsense off is clearly worth its weight in unobtanium.

[rashkov]

this is needlessly cynical, no?

[pfdietz]

It is very needlessly cynical. Helion has a number of very clever ideas, integrated in a way that has impressed me over the years. I would not dismiss them out of hand.

[femto113]

If they are really only 5 years from producing sellable power they are already capable of a science demo that would render this sort of vapid publicity stunt pointless. I’ve set a reminder to check back in 5 years, if the cynicism was genuinely needless I’ll apologize.

[samstave]

Maybe they will just fissile out...

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

If they could build a fusion system, are they in any danger of not having customers to the point that they're selling futures now?

[stu2b50]

It’s a sliding scale in the end. You can have a fusion system that barely breaks even, or only slightly breaks even, and then is still more expensive than traditional energy sources after factoring in fixed costs and maintenance.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Even then, are there no sales possible? I'd think that a borderline fusion reactor would be commercially viable if only for research. You could probably sell a dozen of those around the world. But unless something really weird's going on with the physics, a borderline system is just the mark 1, and everyone expects mark 2 to be more efficient.

[pfdietz]

For example, a DT fusion reactor based on ITER would be two orders of magnitude larger (in volume and mass) than a fission reactor of the same power output. It might "work" in some technical sense, but be completely economically impractical.

[Rnonymous]

So it sounds like Microsoft have committed to buy the first system when it's ready. Without investing anything now? So i guess they get a good discount on that.

Elsewhere, i saw that Helion already raised billions.

So what's in it for Helion? If they can make it happen, and build a sustained fusion system, they will surely be able to sell the energy/systems once ready, and don't really need to sell it at discounted rates now. I could imagine a deal with Microsoft is good for marketing, but seems way too soon for that isn't it?

[fyzix]

Manufactured FOMO to sucker in more investors.