Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
And it would be very
interesting to compare that in
America versus again, let's sayChina, of how the companies are
in relation to the state,because both China and America
are giving these companies moneyto do this stuff.
It's just the difference is inChina, they're trying to drop
(00:21):
the price to where it'sinexpensive.
But in America, we want to raisethe price so that we make more
money, which ultimately whatbecomes more efficient, a super
high-priced power plant or alow-priced power plant.
And again, this affects allaspects of society.
So by dropping the price on thisone thing, you'll be dropping
(00:42):
the price on everything.
It has like a cascading effectof improving everybody's lives.
And imagine not having to worryabout having to pay your power.
Like some people are paying awhole lease or a car payment or
another mortgage on power everysingle month, just in utilities.
And that could be eliminated towhere people would actually have
(01:04):
money to spend on themselves.
But then these energy cabalswould not have this money and
they wouldn't have the powerover it.
Also remember that thepetrodollar is part of the
American dominance, which I'vetalked about before.
So fusion is also underminingthe petrodollar.
So this ultimately will probablytransition when we go into uh
(01:29):
whatever cryptocurrency Trump orthe other people behind him uh
will do.
Which wasn't it Palantir thatwas talking about stablecoin.
(01:54):
Hello, welcome back to InspiredEarth.
I had a little bit of extratime, so I'm gonna try to knock
out an episode here.
Uh it's gonna be about Amazonand the nuclear energy projects
that they are starting rightnow.
Uh we're gonna start off withTimes of India.
(02:17):
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos backedCanadian energy company lays off
employees.
So we're gonna be uh comparingdifferent Amazon projects with
different nuclear technologiesand locations and just kind of
talking about what they're doingin general.
Uh Amazon founder Jeff Bezosbacked energy company General
(02:40):
Fusion has fired 25% of itsworkforce.
The fusion power-up startedstartup is facing financial
difficulties.
General Fusion CEO Greg Twinnywrote an open letter to the
employees in which he revealedthat the company is experiencing
a shortage of cash and isactively seeking additional
(03:01):
funding to continue itsoperations.
This was May Sun May 6th, 2025.
For those unaware, GeneralFusion is a 23-year-old Canadian
commercial fusion energycompany.
According to Pitchbook, it hassecured four$440 million in
funding, including a$22.66million round completed in July.
(03:26):
Notable investors such as JeffBezos, Temasec, BDC Capital have
backed its efforts.
According to reports, GeneralFusion is exploring strategic
options with invest investors,government entities, and
potential buyers to secure thenecessary capital.
And we're going to read the openletter here.
(03:48):
On April 29th, we achievedtransformative milestone at our
Vancouver BC headquarters inCanada.
We successfully compressed alarge-scale magnetized plasma
with lithium using our world'sfirst LM26 fusion demonstration
machine.
Integrated full system anddiagnostics operated safely as
(04:09):
designed, and an early review ofdata indicates we saw ion
temperatures and densitiesincrease our lithium liner
successfully trapped themagnetic field.
This was an incredible successfor our first shot.
What does this mean?
From a technology perspective,we're one step closer to
bringing zero carbon fusion tothe electricity grid using our
(04:31):
unique homegrown Canadiantechnology that the global
industry leaders recognize asone of the most practical for
commercialization.
(04:57):
We are also the only one withthe machine already built to get
there.
Truly, there has never been amore promising time to be or
invest in in general fusion.
Okay, so a lot of this a lot ofthis is gonna sound like
advertisements and like kind ofscammy.
So like take that with you, likewhat you will.
(05:36):
But I'll talk about that at thevery end and in some other
episodes.
Uh, we're just gonna stick withAmazon on this one, and we'll
talk about other ones on otherones and more specifically.
But I will mention a few othercountries at the very end.
Um so general fusion has beenaround the block.
We've proven a lot with a leanbudget.
(05:57):
We're not a shiny new startupwith a drawing and a dream.
We are experienced fusioneerswith a clear view of the path to
success and the machine to proveit.
We've built a global network ofpartners and early adopters
focused on fusion technology,magnetized target fusion, that
is durable, cost-effective, fuelsustainable, and practical.
We are ready to execute ourplan, but are caught in an
(06:21):
economic and geopoliticalenvironment that is forcing us
to wait.
That is an i an insane sentence.
That's exactly what I've beensaying for a long time.
That we have this technology,it's just sitting around.
It's very strange, this likesituation that apparently the
(06:41):
West and humanity seems to be infor now.
Keeping a fusion company fundedin today's world requires more
than just meaningful capital.
It takes ambition, steadfastpatience, a bold national vision
aligned with the opportunity andconstant refreshing of the
investor base as timelinesstretch beyond typical fund
(07:02):
horizons.
Our mission has historicallybeen supported financially by a
mix of strong private investorsand Canadian federal government.
We have been competing againstaggressive nationally funded
fusion programs around theworld.
We have risen to globalleadership by charting a
distinct course founded onentrepreneurship and commercial
(07:23):
focus, while others followgovernment-led or academic
pathways.
However, today's fundinglandscape is more challenging
than ever as an investor, asinvestors and governments
navigate a rapidly shiftinguncertain political and market
climate.
This rapidly shiftingenvironment has directly and
immediately impacted ourfunding.
(07:44):
Therefore, as a result ofunexpected and urgent financing
constraints, we are takingaction now to protect our future
with our game-changingtechnology and IP, including
reducing both the size of ourteam and LM26 operations.
While we navigate this difficultenvironment, we're doing what
resilient teams do and what havedone before refocus, protect
(08:06):
what matters, and keep building.
While this is challenging, thisis a challenging time for
general fusion, it is also anattractive opportunity for those
with the financial means totransform the world.
Which is who?
Like, not anybody who wants totransform the world.
Everything is in place.
The technology, science, LM26,and the know-how and passion.
(08:32):
All we need now is the capcapital to finish the job.
We are opening our doors andactively seeking strategic
options with investors, buyers,governments, and others who
share our vision.
Reach out now and become part ofthe future of energy.
Wow.
It's crazy that they just saidthat out loud.
(08:56):
Like, we have everything we liketo change the world, we just
need you guys to give us somemoney.
That's absolutely insane that wehave this technology just
sitting there, ready, perfectlyit's commercialized at this
point, and they still won't evenuse it.
So this is like another investorstock market thing.
(09:16):
So like take this with a giantgrain of salt.
This is uh May 9th, 2025, anupdated October 17th, 2025, and
it is a massive article uh fromStansbury Research.
I like they're trying to get youto put money into it when they
need like regular people to fundit.
(09:39):
That is such garbage, in myopinion.
I mean I'm we'll see.
You'll see what I'm talkingabout.
You may have first read about ityears ago in a science fiction
book, and now it's rapidlymoving towards science fact.
The Amazon Helios Project is agroundbreaking new initiative in
(10:01):
energy.
Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos,has quietly supported it for
years.
Its name was coined to refer tothe push to achieve nuclear
fusion power on Earth, anachievement likened to creating
a mini sun right on the earth.
Investors around the world,including tech visionaries like
Bezos, sorry, I was zooming itin for anybody reading, are
(10:26):
paying close attention.
Fusion is a potential gamechanger for global energy, the
economy, and our everyday lives.
And while the tone around Heliosis optimistic, after all, fusion
promises limitless clean energy.
There's also measured awarenessthat big opportunities can come
with volatility and uncertainty.
(10:47):
Today we're exploring whatAmazon Helios really means, why
it's called the most excitinghuman discovery since fire, and
what it could mean for you as aninvestor.
Oh man, it just turns this wholething into a joke, into a scam,
into like a pyramid scheme.
They're just like funneling inall this money and doing nothing
(11:09):
with it.
It's so frustrating.
We have all this technology justsitting there waiting.
And frankly, I mean that's why,like, when I get to the end over
here of like all these otherpeople who are focusing on this
technology, it I just think thatthey're gonna have more success.
I mean, I hope that we can havethis stuff in the West, but it
(11:30):
seems like we're so reliant onusing fossil fuels and the
petrodollar as a tool to exploitand oppress and leverage other
people that were not willing tolet go of it, uh, unless we can
use fusion or nuclear in in asimilar way, which I think they
are trying to do eventually.
(11:51):
I mean, I think that's what alot of these things are all like
pointing to is like, oh, we'reabout to change.
So, like, listen to this.
Five key takeaways Limitlessclean energy.
Helios is all about nuclearfusion, a way to produce energy
by fusing atoms like the sun.
Learn more about what nuclearfusion is here and how it works.
If successful, it promisesvirtually limitless zero
(12:14):
emission power without thelong-lived radioactive waste of
today's nuclear plants.
In practical terms, that couldone day mean ultra cheap
electricity for our homes andbusinesses.
2.
Massive economic impact.
The potential market for fusionenergy is staggering, about$40
(12:35):
trillion globally, according toBloomberg.
To put that in perspective,that's roughly 10 times larger
than the market for AI, electricvehicles or robotics, and
quantum computing combined.
In other words, Helios isn'tsimply another tech trend.
It could dwarf an other currentdevelopments and breakthroughs
(12:56):
in economic significance if itworks as hoped.
Number three, transformingsociety and industries.
Fusion power promises much morethan lower electricity bills.
Abundant energy means you coulddesalinate seawater cheaply,
ending water shortages, andpower advanced agriculture like
(13:19):
vertical farms or syntheticfertilizer production to improve
food supply.
Nearly every industry, frommanufacturing to transportation,
could be revolutionized by aninflux of affordable clean
energy.
Think of Helios as a foundationof countless other innovations,
much like how the invention ofelectricity paved the way for
(13:39):
the modern world.
4.
Timing.
Why now?
Which is a very interestingquestion.
Fusion has been a scientificquest for decades, but only
recently have breakthroughs madeit seem within reach.
In late 2022, US scientistsachieved ignition, a fusion
(13:59):
reaction that produces moreenergy than it consumed, a
historic first.
Since then, progress hasaccelerated.
Massive investments are pouringin.
With Bezos and otherbillionaires backing it, and the
US government, along with morethan 30 countries, launched a
fusion initiative in 2023.
(14:20):
And just last month, scientistsat Lawrence Livermore National
Labor Laboratory, NationalIgnition Facility, NIF, more
than doubled the yield of itsprevious record-setting fusion
experiment.
And I think this was updated inOctober.
What once was joked is always 30years away is now slated for
this decade.
In fact, one fusion startup hasa deal to supply to has a deal
(14:45):
to supply power to Microsoft by2028.
And we just read in the previousepisode that Microsoft is taking
part in the uh AI killbots forthe military and stuff.
So like the robot speedbotspeedboat drones or whatever, we
(15:09):
need like a like a shorter namefor that.
I don't even know what to callit.
Those things are gonna be sentthe information is gonna be sent
to a data center that's gonna berunning off of nuclear stuff
with Microsoft.
So that's something to keep inmind as well.
And a lot of the pollution thatcomes off of these data centers
(15:34):
go out locally, so we're stillending up paying the price
environmentally for these robotbombs on the other side of the
world.
We still get polluted over herebecause of it.
In short, Helios matters nowbecause fusion is finally moving
from the lab to the real world.
And last month, the Departmentof Energy published an update on
(15:57):
President Trump's nuclearmilestones, including things
like restarting existing nuclearplants, issuing 900 million in
funding for small modularreactors, and even signing a
deal to build nuclear powerplants in Poland.
Finally, President Trumprecently signed multiple
executive orders on nuclearpower, ushering in the most
(16:18):
aggressive push for nuclearenergy in decades.
Very interesting.
And then this is talking aboutinvesting.
Very quaint, very coincidental,very interesting.
And they're talking about Trumpin such a positive light here.
Oh, he's creating so manyopportunities for us.
(16:38):
Opportunity for early investors.
Like any breakthroughtechnology, those who recognize
its potential early it's sorry,those who recognize its
potential early on stand tobenefit the most.
Amazon Helios could changesociety forever and make early
investors rich.
Indeed, if fusion becomes thedominant energy source,
(17:00):
companies leading the chargemight see exponential growth.
Right now, we're about to crosswhat Barons calls an impending
tipping point.
And Wall Street legend WhitneyTilson has found a little known
company that may have the bestchance of turning fusion into a
reality.
I don't trust any of this stuff.
(17:20):
I I don't have any I don't knowwhat company is best.
I don't know.
It seems like whoever has a goodheart and is like a benevolent
person is probably gonna getlike screwed over by Trump or
what or the administration andthe investors, and whoever's the
most wily, conniving,malevolent, evil, like living
(17:46):
monster is probably gonna be theone that gets the the contract
for it.
That seems like how it goesright now.
Whoever is like connected in theAddams family to fusion, that's
gonna be who gets the contract.
Somebody over there.
CNBC calls it a leader in thenascent space.
Unfortunately, this company isoff limits to most individual
(18:08):
investors, only accreditedinvestors can take a stake in
it.
But Tilson's found a backdoorinto the company that can only
be accessed by$30, blah blahblah blah blah.
It's an advertisement righthere.
Do you see what I'm talkingabout?
They like literally sneak inthese little like snake oil
sales tricks in the middle ofthis stuff.
Like, can we not can we justtalk about the science and leave
(18:29):
out these gimmicks?
It's so predatory.
And it's this is the vulturesare circling this uh industry
before it even gets off theground.
It's crazy.
Of course, it's important tostay aware of volatility.
Transformative industries canhave booms and busts.
(18:50):
As an investor, one shouldapproach this investment much as
one would during the early daysof past revolutions like the
internet or biotech.
So, how exactly does AmazonHelios project fit into the
grand sweep of technologicalrevolutions?
And why is it drawingcomparisons of some of the
biggest breakthroughs in humanhistory?
Because it has the potential todwart them all.
(19:12):
That's what it says.
We'll see, right?
The big picture, a revolution incontext.
Amazon's Helios project is beinghailed as the next great
revolution in a long line ofworld-changing technologies.
To appreciate its significance,it helps to recall how past
breakthroughs transformedsociety and created wealth for
(19:34):
investors who got in early.
Think back to what we've seenover the past century,
widespread electrification, theautomobile, computers, the
internet.
Each of these was a radicalinnovation that upended life as
we knew it.
In the early days, they wereoften met with skepticism or
(19:56):
seen as luxuries.
For example, in the 1990s, manydoubted the internet's
commercial potential.
Few imagined companies likeAmazon would grow to dominate
global e-commerce.
Yet those revolutions eachminted a generation of new
industry leaders and investors.
Nuclear Fusion Energy, the heartof Helio's project, is often
(20:17):
compared with those epochaladvances.
Some experts even say masteringfusion could be as pivotal for
humanity as discovering fire wasfor our prehistoric ancestors.
That may sound like Hyperbole,but consider this.
(20:37):
Fire gave us uh humans heat andlight.
Fusion promises energy on avastly greater scale, effective
effectively unlimited and clean.
It's the power source of the sunand stars, as one scientist
simplistically put it.
Look at the sun, it is thesource of all life.
(20:59):
What we are trying to do is makethe sun on Earth.
In other words, Helios aims torecreate the engine of creation
itself to power ourcivilization.
Placing Helios in historicalcontext, we might liken it to
the moment when humanity learnedto harness electricity.
Before widespread electricpower, life was completely
(21:21):
different.
Once it arrived, it enabledeverything from light bulbs to
computers.
Fusion could have a comparablebig picture impact.
If successful, it could it wouldinaugurate a new age where
energy is abundant and cheap,leading to leaps in productivity
and quality of life that arehard to imagine today, much like
someone in 1925 would struggleto imagine our high-tech life
(21:45):
now.
Of course, with any bigrevolution, especially one in
its early stages, there's a noteof caution.
The broader market volatility ofbreakthrough technologies is
real.
For example, early automobilessaw dozens of car makers rise
and fall before the industrymatured.
(22:05):
The dot-com boom of the 1990screated immense wealth, but it
also saw a crash before the trueinternet giants emerged.
Speaking of crash, I don't knowif you guys saw Peter Thiel as
well as a bunch of other peopleall dropping NVIDIA and Tesla
stocks.
Uh and we're looking like wecould have an AI crash that's
(22:26):
bigger than the GreatDepression, is what the uh the
economists are saying right now.
So uh we'll probably talk aboutthat another time.
But interesting talking about acrash, and then we're about to
talk about AI right now, alsowith the crash, and we're going
through an AI revolution rightnow, which also has seen plenty
of market industry volatility.
(22:48):
That's funny, it's exactly whatI was saying.
Similarly, while Helios couldchange the world, the path will
likely have ups and downs,scientific hurdles, funding
challenges, and competition fromother energy sources.
In short, Amazon Heliosrepresents a big picture
opportunity on par withhistory's greatest technological
leaps.
It sits at the intersection oftwo powerful narratives: the age
(23:12):
holds human quest for harnessingnature's power, from fire to
fission, and now fusion,combined with the modern tale of
rapid innovation driven by bigtech investments and AI enhanced
research.
That is such an optimistic view,or not even optimistic, that's
like a nigh naive view of it.
Like I would say the two mostpowerful powerful narratives are
(23:33):
the need for quest forharnessing nature's power and
the quest for big tech to scampeople.
Like the snake oil salesman.
Don't ever trust big tech.
That's for sure.
As we move on, we'll delve intoeach of the five points of
(23:54):
important ideas behind Helios indetail.
Key idea number one infiniteclean energy at our fingertips.
The first and most fundamentalidea of the Amazon Helios
project is the promise of cleanenergy through nuclear fusion.
Today's nuclear power plantsproduce energy with fission.
The act of splitting heavy atomslike uranium to release energy.
(24:18):
Fusion is the opposite.
It involves fusing two lightatoms like hydrogen into a
heavier one, with which releasesa tremendous amount of energy.
This is exactly how the sunproduces power.
Hydrogen atoms slam togetherunder intense heat and pressure
to form helium, releasing lightand heat.
(24:39):
Scientists have been trying toreplicate this process on Earth
for decades because it has hugeadvantages.
Fusion fuel, often isotopes ofhydrogen such as deuterium and
tritium, is extremely abundant.
Deuterium can be extracted fromseawater, meaning a gallon of
seawater could contain as muchfusion energy potential as 300
gallons of gasoline.
(24:59):
That's insane.
And unlike fission, fusionproduces no long-lived
radioactive waste.
Its byproducts are relativelyshort-lived and the reaction
can't run out of control, sothere's no risk of a runaway
meltdown.
As one report succinctly put it,fusion would produce far more
(25:21):
power than fission with far morefar fewer radioactive
byproducts.
Because the fuel is so abundantand the energy is so high,
fusion power is essentiallylimitless.
One often hears phrases likenext generation energy or
infinite energy in reference tofusion.
While it's not literallyinfinite, the practical supply
(25:43):
is so vast it might as well be.
And it's clean in the sense ofbeing carbon-free with no
greenhouse gases and lowradioactive waste.
If Helios succeeded, succeeds,the world could shift away from
burning fossil fuels and evenconventional nuclear power
plants.
To a source of energy thatdoesn't pollute the air or
(26:04):
contribute to climate change.
This matters tremendously now.
Many of us witnessed a risingextremes in weather or high gas
prices and heating.
Fusion offers hope for relief onboth fronts, a way to combat
climate change by providingclean power and at the same time
meet our growing energy needswithout driving up costs.
(26:26):
For the average American, oneexciting implication of fusion
is the prospect of much lowerutility bills in the future,
which means people like thecompany is gonna lose money.
Of how are we gonna take moneyaway from people?
(26:49):
They can't just haveelectricity.
The price always has to go up tokeep paying back the investors.
It's like a Ponzi scheme.
Until you like take out theprofit motive.
(27:10):
I just don't think electricityshould it's a it's a form of
nature.
We don't I don't think that weshould have to pay for it.
I think that we shouldn't haveto pay for water or air or
sunlight or electricity.
Especially like if it's thisabundant, like they're saying we
should it should just be fromour tax dollars.
(27:33):
That's really how it should be.
And we can make it extremelyinexpensive.
Today, electricity costs aretied to fuel prices, like
natural gas, and can spike dueto market or geopolitical
events.
With fusion, once a plant isbuilt, the fuel, like hydrogen
from water, is so cheap andplentiful that the main cost is
(27:54):
the plant's maintenance.
I mean, you probably would bepaying on maintenance, but once
again, that could be covered intaxes really cheaply.
Some experts believe that maturefusion power could make
electricity dramaticallycheaper, perhaps so cheap it's
nearly an afterthought.
Helios is a vision of energyabundance.
(28:15):
Lighting, heating, cooling, andelectric vehicles all run on
affordable clean energygenerated by miniature suns on
the Earth.
It's hard to overstate howprofoundly abundant energy could
change the world.
If you imagine any activitythat's limited by energy cost,
fusion would remove that limit.
For example, think ofdesalinization.
(28:38):
Turning seawater into freshwater, it's technically feasible
but now feasible now, but veryenergy intensive and thus
expensive.
With cheap fusion power,large-scale desalinization could
provide plentiful fresh water toarid regions, potentially
solving water scarcity, orconsider or consider other
(28:58):
industrial processes likerecycling metals or
manufacturing fertilizer forfarming.
These require huge energyinputs, which is why they can be
costly and cause pollution whendone with fossil fuels.
Fusion could allow us to do moreof these activities cleanly
without worrying about fuelsupply or emissions.
(29:20):
In a fusion-powered future,economic growth might be less
constrained by energy shortagesor environmental concerns.
This is why some have calledfusion energy the holy grail of
science.
It essentially unlocks a futurewhere energy, the lifeblood of
modern civilization, is nolonger a limiting factor.
(29:42):
With fusion, humanity would haveenergy at its fingertips akin to
harnessing the power of the sun.
It's an inspiring prospect, onethat scientists have pursued for
generations.
Thanks to recent advances, thatprospect is closer than ever to
becoming a reality.
And the significance of Heliosgoes beyond cheap power.
It extends to economic andsocietal transformations.
Key idea number two (30:07):
a$40
trillion revolution, bigger than
idea than the AI.
Investors and economists triedto put numbers on what a
successful fusion revolutionwould mean, and the figures are
staggering.
According to BloombergIntelligence, if nuclear fusion
is mastered, it could eventuallyspawn a 40 trillion global
(30:30):
market for energy and relatedtechnologies.
That far exceeds the expectedmarkets for AI, quantum, EVs,
and robotics combined.
In short, fusion would be amagnitude more economically
powerful.
Why?
Because its energy is afoundation for everything else.
If you create a new AI software,you still need electricity to
(30:52):
run it.
If you build millions ofelectronic vehicles, electric
vehicles, they need power tocharge.
Fusion addresses the base layerof industry, energy production,
which is a colossal market todisrupt, which is another key
thing.
They're disrupting the oilmarket.
They're putting out all theseother people.
Today's global energy market,oil, gas, coal, electricity, is
(31:14):
already some$15 trillion.
Fusion could not only take alarge share of that, but also
expand it by enabling newindustries.
A$40 trillion opportunity meansthe potential for enormous
wealth creation.
We can draw an analogy toearlier tech revolutions.
For instance, the internet eracreated several trillion
(31:35):
dollars, like companies likeAmazon, Apple, and Google,
countless smaller ones.
Just super quick, it's sayingthat we could have potential for
massive wealth creation.
I think again that more thanjustifies putting the initial
maintenance costs onto thetaxpayer and trying to get it as
(31:57):
low as possible, uh rather thanmake it expensive to produce
profit if you go as cheap aspossible to make everything cost
as less as possible, then theprices would go down.
And then the like returns on allthese other uh technologies and
(32:18):
companies are talking aboutwould be even higher.
So just saying but fusion couldspawn its own set of industry
giants, companies that buildfusion reactors, companies that
supply specialized materialslike advanced superconductors or
lasers for the reactors, andcompanies that leverage the
cheap energy in innovative ways.
(32:41):
Early investors and the Wrightcompanies could see exponential
growth.
If you've invested in personalcomputing in the 1980s or the
internet in 1990s, you mighthave seen massive returns once
those technologies reshaped theworld.
Fusion stands at a similarjuncture today.
A few firms are developingbreakthrough reactors, and if
(33:01):
one of them cracks the codecommercially, the value creation
would be immense, which theyalready have cracked the code.
This is like such a paradoxicalthing of like, oh, we we're
almost there, we just need moremoney.
And then over here we just readthey are there, but now they
need more money.
SPEAKER_00 (33:38):
I'll shut it down,
I'll shut it down, yeah.
I'll shut it down.