[NewsSpace=JeongYoung Kim]  Big tech tycoons in Silicon Valley are increasingly investing in the field of nuclear fusion. According to the Wall Street Journal on the 23rd local time, investors including Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI which developed the AI chatbot "ChatGPT," Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and Marc Benioff, founder and CEO of Salesforce, are making huge investments in nuclear fusion technology that utilizes the principle of providing infinite energy by supplying power to the sun and other sources. Altman has reportedly invested $375 million (approximately KRW 500 billion) in Helion Energy, a nuclear fusion startup. 

Nuclear fusion has long been recognized as clean energy that replaces fossil fuels emitting greenhouse gases, and is also being developed for its powerful magnets and radiation cancer treatments. The attention of Silicon Valley's elite has been drawn to nuclear fusion since August 2021 when nuclear fusion reactions that produce more energy than the energy input were almost successful at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The US government announced in December of last year that the NIF research team at LLNL had achieved nuclear fusion ignition for the first time.

As a result, investors believe that nuclear fusion power plants using this technology can become a reality within a few years and have begun investing. According to a survey by the Fusion Industry Association (FIA), more than $5 billion (approximately KRW 6.7 trillion) of private funds have been invested in the nuclear fusion field, with seven companies raising at least $200 million (approximately KRW 266 billion). In particular, over 75% of the funds raised have been secured since 2021, according to PitchBook, a US startup market research firm.

Salesforce's Benioff, who invested in Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), called nuclear fusion "a tremendous dream, a holy grail, and a mythical unicorn," saying, "If we can make it work, there are no limits." Commonwealth Fusion Systems aims to develop small-scale power plants. Benioff said the investment was made through an introduction by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, an early investor in private nuclear fusion, which was historically exclusive to academia and national research institutes.

However, according to WSJ, as implementing nuclear fusion is extremely difficult, companies also develop other products in parallel with technology development. From the perspective of companies, they need to generate profits as well as scientific innovation.

Adam Rodman, the founder of hedge fund Segra Capital Management, who invested in General Fusion in Canada along with Amazon's Bezos, added that intellectual property obtained during the development process also has value apart from nuclear fusion.