Helion Wins $175M CHIPS Act Award to Build U.S. High-Voltage Semiconductor Line for Fusion

Why power electronics decide fusion economics

Helion's reactor design, a field-reversed configuration, injects fusion fuel into both ends of an hourglass-shaped chamber, heats it into plasma and accelerates the two plasmas toward each other with magnetic fields. When they collide, another magnetic field compresses the resulting ball past 100 million degrees Celsius, driving fusion and pushing plasma outward against the magnetic field. Rather than using the reaction to heat steam and spin a turbine, Helion harvests electricity directly from that push — an approach it calls direct energy conversion, analogous to how an EV's motor recovers energy while slowing the car.

The weak link today is the power electronics in that loop, which lose roughly 5% to 10% of the electricity passing through them. In a tightly coupled system those losses compound. "If we can cut that loss in half, that's actually twice the power output of the fusion system," CEO and co-founder David Kirtley told TechCrunch. Efficient semiconductors are, in his framing, one of the enabling parts of direct electricity recovery: putting power into fusion and recovering it at high speed and high efficiency.

A domestic first for advanced power chips

The new line will be built in Washington State and will include automated semiconductor module, packaging and testing capacity to supply the fusion machine now under construction. Kirtley said no U.S. manufacturer currently makes this class of device, which is used not only in fusion but in manufacturing, wastewater treatment, medicine and defense. "This is absolutely enabling going from zero to 100 for advanced, high-voltage and pulsed semiconductors here in the United States," he said.

Funding splits across two states. More than $100 million is earmarked for semiconductor and advanced packaging R&D in Washington, while roughly $80 million supports R&D in Vermont for advanced semiconductor tooling, design and process development with GlobalFoundries. Separately, GlobalFoundries has received more than $80 million from the federal government to advance manufacturing of gallium-nitride semiconductors, a type widely used in power electronics.

Orion, Microsoft and the 2028 clock

Helion is racing to complete its first plant, Orion, in time to deliver grid electricity to Microsoft under a 2028 deadline. Kirtley acknowledged that the R&D funded by the award will not reach Orion before launch, since federal contracts can take months to negotiate. The payoff is aimed at subsequent plants, where better efficiency should sharpen competitiveness in electricity markets. The company says direct energy conversion is central to reaching the milestone every fusion plant needs: producing more power than it consumes.

Beyond the grid

The broader market for advanced power electronics is already visible in electric vehicles, the widest current use, and in consumer electronics, where size and power demands are lower than Helion's. Defense is another likely beneficiary as interest grows in energy weapons capable of countering drone swarms that overwhelm conventional air defenses. Bill Frauenhofer, who leads semiconductor investment and innovation at the Department of Commerce, said in a press release that the award will help convert and deliver power to critical applications in defense, grid transmission and advanced energy generation. Kirtley said Helion remains focused on domestic energy supply, national security through energy dominance, and energy security.

The CHIPS Act, a Biden-era law aimed at rebuilding U.S. semiconductor research, development and manufacturing, here extends into power electronics for fusion — a bet that the same devices that make a reactor economically viable could also supply a domestic industrial base that does not yet exist.