Inspired Earth

Episode 46: Part 2 Amazon $40 Trillion Fusion Energy Threatens Petrodollar, China-Russia-India Reactors

• Inspired Earth • Season 2 • Episode 46

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Energy abundance isn’t a slogan; it’s a lever that can move the whole economy. We dig into where fusion stands today, why major players are piling in, and how the technology could redraw power maps—from city grids and data centers to farms, fabs, and even spacecraft. Along the way, we challenge the funding paradox: if the physics is working at small scales, what will it take to prove plants that run year-round and deliver cheaper, cleaner electricity to actual customers?

We connect the dots between grid reliability, deep electrification, and consumer prices. Fusion’s siting flexibility could shrink transmission losses and help EV adoption without straining networks. In agriculture and water, abundant power unlocks low-carbon fertilizer, large-scale desalination, and year-round indoor growing that strengthens food security. Manufacturers and semiconductor fabs gain from lower energy costs, potentially reshaping supply chains and making advanced production more competitive at home. If the marginal cost of compute falls, AI and drug discovery scale without punishing communities—assuming smarter siting and water stewardship.

There’s a geopolitical turn too. Domestic fusion capability points to energy sovereignty and weakens petrodollar-era leverage. That shift raises hard questions about ownership models, pricing, and how the benefits of public R&D and tax incentives flow back to households. We unpack the investor narrative—outsized upside versus real engineering and adoption risks—and consider how policy can convert breakthrough headlines into lower bills and broader prosperity. If we design it well, fusion can be more than a moonshot; it can be a public win.

If this conversation sparks new ideas, follow the show, share it with a friend who cares about climate and industry, and leave a review with the one policy change you’d make to turn energy abundance into everyday savings.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/amazon-founder-jeff-bezos-backed-canadian-energy-company-lays-off-employees-read-what-the-ceo-said/articleshow/120919626.cms

https://stansberryresearch.com/stock-market-trends/what-is-the-amazon-helios-project

https://inl.gov/news-release/idaho-national-laboratory-accelerates-nuclear-energy-projects-with-amazon-web-services-cloud-and-ai-technologies/

https://www.chosun.com/english/industry-en/2025/12/03/I4MICKYEYJDDRBBE4SUQLSYWEE/

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-has-it-russia-building-it-india-working-on-it-the-small-nuclear-reactor-race-9354989

https://interestingengineering.com/energy/amazon-nuclear-energy-smr-facility

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SPEAKER_00:

Early investors and the right companies could see exponential growth. If you've invested in personal computing in the 1980s or the internet in 1990s, you might have seen massive returns once this technology's reshaped the world. Fusion stands at a similar juncture today. A few firms are developing breakthrough reactors, and if one of them cracks the code commercially, the value creation would be immense, which they already have cracked the code. This is like such a paradoxical thing of like, oh, we we're almost there, we just need more money. And then over here we just read they are there, but now they need more money. It's it's insane. They just need like an actual government to back it rather than just put making this all private. The problem is that it's private. That's the problem. Beyond direct investments, profits, a 40 trillion fusion industry would mean lots of economic activity, new companies, new jobs, possibly even new infrastructure. Imagine building fusion power plants across the country, similar to how oil boom created refineries and pipelines. Entire regions could become hubs of fusion tech development. For example, there's the talk of Seattle area becoming fusion town USA because multiple fusion startups are clustering there. This is reminiscent of Silicon Valley's rise during the Computer Revolution or Houston's rise during the oil boom. It's clear that Helio's project and the fusion energy are not simply another tech trend, but potentially the largest economic opportunity of the coming decades. With an estimated 40 trillion, it could eclipse the buzzworthy industries of today. For an investor, that means that although fusion might feel like it's science fiction, it's actually about the future of global economy, an opportunity so large that it could shape the investment landscape for the rest of our lives and well beyond. As well, as always, such large numbers come with uncertainty, but they signal why so many smart and deep pocketed people are directing their attention to capital fusion now. Key idea number three. So this ought to be good. Energy utilities oh transforming industries from power to agriculture. The third key idea of Amazon Helios is transformative ripple effect that the fusion energy could have across countless industries and aspects of daily life. It's not just about cheaper electricity, it's about what cheap and plentiful energy enables us to do differently. And there are a few specific sectors that could revolutionize that could be revolutionized by fusion. Energy utilities and infrastructure. Electric grids could become more stable and flexible. For instance, because fusion plants don't need vast fuel mines or as much cooling like big fission plants, they can ideally be placed near cities reducing transmission losses. With abundant power, we could also supercharge the expansion of VVs without straining the grid, since fusion could meet the extra demand easily. This means the transportation sector becomes more sustainable faster. Some proponents argue fusion will be the backbone that finally allows us to electrify everything. This is a concept called deep electrification. In practical terms, for everyday consumers, this would mean better service reliability and possibly new options like microfusion reactors. Agriculture and food production. Fusion's impact on food and water might not be immediately obvious, but it's potentially huge. Agriculture is energy intensive in some ways. Making fertilizer relies on natural gas through Haberbosch process for ammonia, irrigation, irrigation, and water pumping need electricity. And controlled environment farming like greenhouses and vertical farms with grow lights require lots of power. With cheap fusion energy, we could produce fertilizers with less cost and no carbon, boosting yield crops sustainably. We could also power massive desalinization plants to turn seawater into irrigation water, green deserts, or rescue drought-stricken farmland. By removing energy as a bottleneck, fusion could allow humanity to generate ample fresh water and grow food in climates out of season that were previously not viable. Imagine giant indoor farms in your cities powered by fusion reactors, producing fusion produce fresh oh my gosh, producing fresh produce year-round, or coastal fusion powered desalinization, providing drinking water to entire states. These changes could improve food security and reduce resource conflicts. For investors, this hints at opportunities not just for nuclear reactor makers, but in companies will leverage cheap energy for water and agricultural solutions. Manufacturing and high-tech industry. Manufacturing often involves high temperatures, which currently come from burning fossil fuels. Materials that are currently expensive to produce might become cheaper if energy is minimized. In addition, tech industries like semiconductor fabrication could also benefit. Those plants use enormous amounts of electricity for clean rooms and equipment. Cheaper power lowers operating costs, potentially making electronics cheaper or margins higher. Essentially any industry where energy is significant and has a significant input cost stands to gain. Transportation and space. Beyond Earth, fusion could revolutionize space travel. This might be a bit further afield, but worth noting, if we master fusion power plants, then knowledge can translate into propulsion. Engineers have theorized fusion-powered spacecraft that could dramatically shorten travel time to Mars or beyond, by providing continuous thrust far more efficient than chemical rockets. Even on Earth, transport industries benefit indirectly. For example, railways or future hyperloops running on fusion supplied electricity or in synthetic fuels like ammonia or hydrogen-based fuels with fusion energy to power ships and airplanes in a carbon neutral way. As an investor, you might not be able to invest in rocket ships, but you might see companies like aerospace firms pivot to include fusion power designs, blah blah blah blah blah. Healthcare and research. Indirectly, abundant energy means we can do more than more in health care and science too. High powered computing for drug discovery discovery or AI would be no problem if electricity is cheap. Hospitals are energy hogs. Fusion could ensure that they always have low-cost power, which might reduce health care operating costs in the long run. Even things like water purification for safe drinking, water might tie back to energy. They've already said this. Fusion might not directly cure all illnesses, but improved resources and reduced pollution could create healthier environments globally. In essence, fusion's impact will radia outward in virtually every corner of the economy. Helios Vision isn't just about power plants, it's about a cascade of positive changes, lower costs, newer capabilities, and solutions to energy constraints. This is why the World Economic Forum and observers are so excited. Some have said fusion could revolutionarize our world. For investors, it means the Helios opportunity is multifaceted. I'm so tired of reading for investors. One could invest not only in the companies trying to build fusion reactors, but also in those poised to benefit from cheap stuff. Why now? Breakthroughs and Bezos involvement. Why now? Why is the Amazon Helios project in the spotlight at the moment, rather than say 20 years ago or 20 years from now? It's all about timing. The convergence of recent scientific breakthroughs, urgent global needs, and the involvement of visionary backers like Jeff Bezos. That make today a pivotal moment for fusion energy. I feel like wait. I'm just not gonna say anything. I think billionaires should uh should help people eat and not have giant yachts and stuff like that, but whatever. Think of it as a Wright Brothers moment for fusion, just as the first 12-second flight at Kitty Hawk proved air travel was possible, that brief ignition proved the controlled fusion yield net energy was possible. A key element of Helios' narrative is Bezos' involvement. Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, has indeed been quietly funding fusion research for a long time. He invested in a Canadian fusion startup called General Fusion more than a decade, which we just read about. For 14 years now, Bezos Venture Fund and others have pumped money into fusion projects, signaling a strong belief that this technology will pay off in the future. And famously in 2023, Microsoft signed a deal to buy electricity from Fusion startup Helion Energy by 2028. Even OpenAI Sam Altman invested heavily in Helion, and Bill Gates has funded a fusion company called Commonwealth Fusion Systems. In short, many big names in technology and business are now involved in pushing fusion forward. This matters because these people bringing in not just money but also attention, talent, and credibility, when Amazon's founder and Microsoft are putting money into fusion, it's a signal that this is not French science anymore. It's moving into the mainstream of serious innovation. At the same time, the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical tensions have reminded nations that relying on imported fossil fuels is risky. Fusion, once developed, can be done domestically by any nation with the technology, since the fuel is widely available. This strategic aspect means governments are now more than ever willing to invest in fusion research and development and streamline regulations. In late 2023, the US and UK even signed a cooperation agreement on fusion, and 35 countries launched a plan to accelerate fusion development. So, unlike in earlier eras when fusion research projects plotted along on limited budgets, we just read the other thing too. That's so funny. General fusion. And then they talk about it right here. So unlike earlier eras when fusion research plotted along on limited budgets, there's a concerted international push, essentially a sense that we need fusion and we need it as soon as possible. In summary, fusion's time is now due to convergence of scientific progress, technological aid, influential backing, and global urgency. The Amazon Helios Project capitalizes on this moment. Whitney Tielsen and Transbury Research highlight these points to explain why this research isn't just idle chatter. Okay, so I was getting too tired to continue when I was previously recording. I was just mixing up all my words and I was getting too tired, so I had to take a break, and now I'm gonna I'm back and I'm gonna read some more, and we're almost at the end of this article, but I wanted to go over some stuff that I had read last time. Uh I had just read at the same time the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical tensions have reminded nations that relying on imported fossil fuels is risky, fusion once developed can do can be done domestically by any nation with the technology since the fuel is widely available. This part is also very critical, that it's talking about national sovereignty and that any nation that gets fusion will get its sovereignty, which could destabilize the uh supremacist hegemonic uh imperialist like world order and uh economic systems like the petrodollar and the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, as well as other uh uh systems of control uh from this uh superstructure of the globe, of the elites. So a nation could buck the system and go rogue, potentially, and it could be anybody, anybody that did it. They could be the number one, and the same thing with AI. They're saying that any country that gets AGI or artificial general intelligence, the first one to do it will have its own sovereignty. So these things seem to be tied together very closely, and it's gonna say that earlier uh later too. So uh and let me just also remind you guys, because this is extremely important, it talked about healthcare and research, transportation and space exploration, manufacturing, high-tech industry, agriculture and food, energy and utilities and infrastructure. And in the news uh in the last couple months, it's been talking about New Jersey and all these different communities that have been poisoned by massive data centers, and that there the water is being poisoned and wasted, and not only that, but there are superclusters of rare cancers already popping up around these data centers, uh, as well as apparently uh nitrate um like poisoning and messing up the nitrate cycle and nitrogen cycle. So that's pretty startling, but the fact that we're talking about it revolutionizing every single industry, this is like our whole way of life. Not only that are people being poisoned by the data centers and and these uh all this infrastructure for this stuff, but it's taking people's electricity away as well, and people are having to pay higher prices for electricity. And so this is fusion and AI have to do with our entire way of life and the entire globe. Basically all life on Earth are affected by this. If we were to stop using carbon uh carbon fuels, then we could save many, many people. Many, many animals. Entire species could be saved. They're talking about like a massive amount of species will be extinct by twenty one hundred. We could prevent that with this technology and even reverse some of it. So that's very important for us to understand that this is about way more uh than just fusion or or one person or anything like that. So we'll continue reading here. For an investor who might have heard about fusion in the news occasionally over the decades, the difference today is tangible. Net energy gain has been demonstrated in a lab. Companies are building prototype plants, such as General Fusion, aims to have one running in 2025, and even contracts for future fusion power are being signed. Opportunities and risks for early investors. So this is like gonna talk to you about how to invest in fusion. If you're someone nearing retirement age who has seen cycles of booms and busts before, just what does Amazon Helios project mean as an investment opportunity? And just as crucially, what are the risks and uncertainties to keep in mind? Okay, so this is interesting. The fact that older people have seen booms and busts before, and that we're told that this is supposed to be a very stable system, like that's what people look to America as, and that's why they invest their money in the dollar. Is because historically people have been led to believe that it's the most stable economy in the world. But yet, here we are seeing the proof is in the pudding here of retirement age people have seen cycles of booms and busts. So booms and busts are inherent within the capitalist system. Because it's like going up all the time is not possible. Yeah, I mean, it just goes to show that it's like delusional. So uh yeah, I just had to point that out. That it's it's the cycles of booms and busts are inherent in a system like this that's based off of constant exponential growth and exploitation. And just as crucially, what are the risks and uncertainties to keep in mind? Early investors in world-changing trends can see outsized gains. We've all heard the stories, the folks who bought Microsoft or Apple stock in the 1980s or Amazon in 1997 and held on became very wealthy as those companies grew. Fusion being such a fundamental shift could mint the next generation of big winners. There may be new companies that become the ExxonMobil of the fusion age, dominating fusion power plant construction or operations. See, that doesn't sound like a good thing to me. The the next generation of big winners, quote unquote, sounds like a game of musical chairs that should not exist. Like we shouldn't organize our economies this way. This is madness. This is what I was talking about with the snake oil salesman and the exploitation that we can't ever get honesty and uh yeah, that there could be existing companies that pivot into fusion and see their valuations surge. For example, maybe a large energy company or defense contractor that successfully develops fusion tech could see its stock soar. Think of companies in advanced energy, tech, or aerospace that are exploring fusion partnerships, those could be candidates. The bottom line is if fusion fulfills its promise, the early stage investors and the right firms could see exponential growth, much like early stage investors in the internet did. For an investor, one angle of opportunity is not just wild growth, but also long-term security. If fusion becomes a mainstay in, say, 10 to 15 years, it could explain a whole new set of stable industries that pay dividends and are subject to less geopolitical price shocks than oil and gas. So that's kind of interesting. Fusion needs to be proved at scale first, but it's a reason some investors might start with a small position now and add over time. Now to the risk caveats, because no prudent discussion would ignore these. Despite the breakthroughs, fusion is not a done deal. There remains significant engineering challenges to go from one off lab results to a power plant that runs reliably year-round. Which it's interesting how that's the the barrier that they always put up. Well, like we have the results, but we don't have it at scale. But they won't ever let anybody get to scale. Building a device that can withstand the extremes inside a fusion reactor is non-trivial. It's possible that some hurdles like finding materials that long last that last long inside the reactor could take longer to overcome. If it takes 20 plus years to commercialize instead of 5 to 10, early investments might languish for a while or require patience beyond what some investors have. Even if fusion power plants work by the late 2020s, there's the question of how quickly they will be adopted. The world has an existing massive energy infrastructure. Utilities and governments tend to move slowly. See, this is what I was talking about with the investors as well, like the big global investors, not the small investors, because there's a big difference between those two. And we see the global energy infrastructure shifting towards nuclear, and it's becoming more and more rapid since I talked about it, what, a year or two ago? It's when I first talked about the banks. Um, and I have something about that coming up. Um so let's get to the end here. In conclusion, the Helios project presents an exciting early investment opportunity with potentially life-changing upsides, but it must be approached with the eyes open to risks. Whitney Tilson is known as a savvy investor who has navigated past crashes, so he urges optimism but also caution. Investing in Helios, how investors can profit. See, they're like constantly trying to drum up money. This is like such a a scam, it feels like it's it feels like a scam. Like all of these projects do. Like, why should the taxpayers pay for this? This is it's not even not just even taxpayers, just like random people giving away their money. It's not even to like an actual project. But after learning about the immense promise of Amazon's Helio project, the natural question is how can I invest in this? There are several ways. Investing in fusion-focused companies, the most direct way to invest in Helio's project is to invest in companies working on fusion technology. However, meeting many leading fusion ventures like Helion, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, General Fusion are currently private hubs not yet publicly traded. This means typical investors can't buy their track their stock on the open market. Only venture capitalists and private equity firms can invest there for now. See, this part is is very interesting. So it's like only this private um people in the know that have the like authority to trade into this stuff. Isn't that interesting? It's not publicly available, like pup regular people can't pay into it. But that other company that I had talked about earlier in the year, uh they had gone public and they were asking for for people's like investment. So I don't know. There's trade-offs to either to both, and frankly, I I don't don't have a preference between the two. I think that that something this big needs to be backed by the government to make sure it can't fail and to do it actually the right way, uh, and to actually make the cost low. Because we're paying for it anyways. A lot of this stuff is being subsidized through uh tax dollars. Same thing with AI. We're already paying for it with our tax dollars, we're just donating it to these ultra-rich people. Like, we're basically giving our money to Bezos. And like, are we gonna get any of that money back? No, we're not. Same thing with AI. Fusion is the same way. Um, and quantum. Quantum, that's a good time to bring this up. All of this stuff that we're talking about, as far as quantum power, quantum uh computing, and quantum GPS, quantum radar, uh, quantum internet, all of these things, like the quantum technology, fusion, and AI are all massive uh in the scope of how they change society, but they're also massive in the fact that they're like a black hole of money that goes into these private groups that just vacuum up and like hoover up all the money. And uh it's like we're just donating it to them. Well, it's more like they're stealing it because like we don't even know that we're giving it to them and we won't get anything back. I'm sure a lot of people that hear that we're subsidizing power plants or something, they're like, Well, yeah, we're going to uh have a lower utility bill as a result of that. But no, that's not true, unfortunately. Not unless the state can enforce that. Um, but we'll talk about that, I think, here in just a second. Another approach is by the backers. Since tech giants like Alphabet, Google's parent company, Amazon, founded by Bezos and Microsoft, and oil companies like Chevron have shown interest in fusion. One might argue that owning some of these giants gives exposure to fusion success without the single project risk. So they're saying that like all of these companies are too big to fail, so that's the reason we should like give money to them so that they'll do it to Fusion. Well, couldn't you say the same thing about China and not just give it to rich people, but actually like have it in integrated into the economy and try to drop the price rather than raise the price and steal all the like poor people's money? I mean, I'm not saying that it's perfect either in any system, there's no perfect system, but I can clearly see that like giving our money away to these ultra-rich people is not working. It's a joke. This is like the Gilded Age of Robber Barons. This is like a new era of robber barons. That's exactly what this is. So then this is more on how to invest in it. And the reason I'm reading this is because this part is actually kind of good, and that it gets you an idea of what people will be investing in and like how the money is going to be churning with these um technologies and corporations, and it would be very interesting to compare that in America versus again, let's say China, of how the companies are in relation to the state, because both China and America are giving these companies money to do this stuff. It's just the difference is in China, they're trying to drop the price to where it's inexpensive, but in America, we want to raise the price so that we make more money, which ultimately what becomes more efficient? A super high-priced power plant or a low-priced power plant. And again, this affects all aspects of society. So by dropping the price on this one thing, you'll be dropping the price on everything. It has like a cascading effect of improving everybody's lives. And imagine not having to worry about having to pay your power. Like some people are paying a whole lease or a car payment or another mortgage on power every single month, just in utilities, and that could be eliminated to where people would actually have money to spend on themselves, but then these energy cabals would not have this money and they wouldn't have the power over us. Also, remember that the petrodollar is part of the American dominance, which I've talked about before. So fusion is also undermining the petrodollar. So this ultimately will probably transition when we go into uh whatever cryptocurrency Trump or the other people behind him uh will do. Which wasn't it, Palantir that was talking about stable coin.