Bill Gates' Microsoft has become the first Big Tech company to sign a power purchase agreement with a nuclear fusion company.
Fusion is based on the same physical reactions that power the sun and stars, which create energy by forcing atoms together. It is the opposite of standard nuclear reactors which rely on fission, breaking atoms apart, and it produces zero carbon.
Fusion is hailed as a potential source of almost limitless clean energy, but is has proved very difficult to harness. However, amid rising energy prices and a cost-of-living crisis, it could become a safe and clean alternative source of energy that might become available in the not-too-distant future - or so Microsoft believes.
The company that will provide Microsoft with the clean electricity is Helion Energy, a start-up founded in 2013 and backed by Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, the company that has revolutionised artificial intelligence with its smart chatbot ChatGPT.
Helion...