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Fusion power may not be sci-fi. Just ask the people who sunk $5B into it | Equity Podcast

Fusion energy has been “20 years away” for decades, but has the science finally caught up? Private investment in fusion companies surged from $10 billion to $15 billion in just months, and the money is coming from places you wouldn’t expect. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan and guest host Tim De…

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Fusion energy has been “20 years away” for decades, but has the science finally caught up? Private investment in fusion companies surged from $10 billion to $15 billion in just months, and the money is coming from places you wouldn’t expect.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan and guest host Tim De Chant sit down with Rachel Slaybaugh, general partner at DCVC, to break down why serious investors are finally treating fusion as a real asset class, and what the return thesis actually looks like when no one expects a power plant in their fund lifetime.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro & fusion fest check-in

01:52 Why fusion, why now?

05:04 Federal funding history

06:17 The IEA’s 2030 milestone

07:37 What’s actually new: AI & superconducting magnets

09:19 Near-term revenue vs. staying the course

12:03 The return thesis: betting on “fusion euphoria”

19:33 Portfolio strategy: betting on the whole stack

21:16 How much energy do we actually need?

25:39 Data centers & the regulatory window

29:06 Fusion vs. fission explained

30:15 Going public: SPACs & Trump Media

32:08 Outro

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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. @jeffcraymore

    April 22, 2026 at 4:03 pm

    It is “sci-fi” if they had a brain. They would know it’s a scam. Over Unity. You can’t produce more power than what is required to produce that power.
    They are at 80% output verse the amount they need to run the test.
    They will never reach 110% output. because it is physically impossible.

    While, yeah for them to allow the scientists to keep playing with their toys (doing research) In no reality can they produce over unity.

  2. @SchweetOne

    April 22, 2026 at 6:03 pm

    The catch with fusion is that the time period that the fusion lasts at lawrence livermore is only trillionths of a second. Sure fusion has been sustained for many minutes in other cases, but reaching ignition and having it last is still very far away it seems. They need to go from ignition events one to two times per day, to having thousands per second. 5 billion is chump change if a miracle happens and there’s a massive breakthrough, but it’s not exactly ‘close’. Quantum is just as far away.

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CNET

Unboxing Apple’s $149 HomePod Mini 2 in Green

Apple’s new HomePod Mini 2 is equipped with a full-range driver and dual passive radiators, made for 360-degree sound. It measures about 4 inches across, and will come equipped with the S10 chip, which Apple says analyzes music in real time to optimize it. Unbox it with us in their new green color. #unboxing #onemorething…

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Apple’s new HomePod Mini 2 is equipped with a full-range driver and dual passive radiators, made for 360-degree sound. It measures about 4 inches across, and will come equipped with the S10 chip, which Apple says analyzes music in real time to optimize it. Unbox it with us in their new green color. #unboxing #onemorething #apple #homepodmini2 #smartspeaker

🎥: Bridget Carey

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CNET

iPhone Duo Livestream: How Many Folds Can Apple’s Phone Take? Day 5

Apple’s iPhone Duo is out and we want to see how durable it is. So we built a robot to fold it 20,000+ times a day to test its limits. How long do you think it will last? 100,000 folds? 200,000 folds? 500,000 folds? Tune in and watch the testing live. We’ll have CNET’s editors…

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Apple’s iPhone Duo is out and we want to see how durable it is. So we built a robot to fold it 20,000+ times a day to test its limits. How long do you think it will last? 100,000 folds? 200,000 folds? 500,000 folds? Tune in and watch the testing live. We’ll have CNET’s editors online to answer any of your questions.

Join us weekdays from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET.

Read more about the iPhone Duo Folding Test on CNET.com
The iPhone Duo Is Now in Our Custom-Made Foldable Phone Test Machine. Will It Beat the Galaxy Fold 8?

iPhone Duo Review: Late to the Foldable Party, but It Steals the Show

Check out the 3D Printer Matthew Murray used to print the sled that iPhone Duo is sitting on:
Looking for the Most Accurate 3D Printer? Our Exclusive Testing Reveals One Clear Winner

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#apple #iphone #iphonefold #iphoneduo #applefoldable #foldablephone #foldable #folding

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Science & Technology

Anthropic’s IPO filing puts the AI business model to the test | Equity Podcast

After weeks of speculation and leaks, Anthropic finally released the S-1 filing for its IPO, showing revenue of $16.3 billion for the first half of 2026, with a net loss of $80.7 billion. At around the same time, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer sparked a backlash after boasting about using her AI app Dazzle to…

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After weeks of speculation and leaks, Anthropic finally released the S-1 filing for its IPO, showing revenue of $16.3 billion for the first half of 2026, with a net loss of $80.7 billion.

At around the same time, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer sparked a backlash after boasting about using her AI app Dazzle to answer questions about her daughter for a school presentation.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and Anthony Ha dig into the long-awaited financial details behind one of the industry’s biggest companies, looking at both the enormous opportunities and the many, many risks. They’re also joined by Amanda Silberling to discuss a more basic question facing the industry: Are AI execs too out-of-touch to build products for normal people?

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
2:47 Marissa Mayer’s Dazzle backlash
8:47 Product problem or messaging problem?
12:46 Anthropic’s S-1
15:09 Revenue growth, losses, and the acquisition spree
20:02 The S-1’s most notable risk factors
23:57 Apollo economist: where’s the AI payoff?
25:36 Bedrock Robotics raises $600M for self-driving excavators
30:12 Rebuild raises $2.1B for domestic manufacturing
34:11 Outro

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