Helion Energy (based in Washington State near Microsofts head office) agreed to provide Microsoft with at least 50 megawatts of electricity from its planned first fusion power plant, starting in 2028. Fifty megawatts is enough electricity to power a data center or factory, said David Kirtley, Helion's CEO. Helion Energy has received over $570 million in funding and commitments for another $1.7 billion to develop commercial nuclear fusion.

David Kirtley discusses the science and scaling at Helion Energy.

7th prototype Polaris
Helion's seventh-generation prototype, Project Polaris was in development in 2021, with completion expected in 2024. The device was expected to increase the pulse rate from one pulse every 10 minutes to one pulse per second for short periods.

The goal is to increase the pulse rate to one per second and then to 10 shots per second. This will be 600 to 6000 times more frequent than the previous prototype.

They have already built smaller steady state capacitor systems that have sustained hundreds of shots per second. Helion has had low pulse rate high power systems and high pulse rate low power systems. The Polaris system will bring this together with high pulse rate high power systems.

8th prototype Antares
As of January 2022, an eighth prototype, Antares, is in the design stage.

Hitting the goals for the Microsoft obligations. Helion Energy will need to make Polaris work at 10 pulses per second and then make Antares work with Polaris energy generation and Antares energy capture.