In an outrageously audacious move, Washington-based fusion power startup Helion has signed the world's first fusion power supply deal, promising to deliver Microsoft at least 50 megawatts of clean fusion power by 2028, or pay financial penalties.

If you'll forgive the pun, there's been a palpable energy in the field of nuclear fusion over the last few years. It's driven by a fresh crop of companies breaking away from the lugubrious pace of massive inter-governmental projects like ITER, exploring new technologies, and promising practical, low-cost, commercial fusion power on radically shortened timelines.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems reckons its SPARC facility will demonstrate net energy by 2025, and will start supplying the grid with power "in the early 2030s," potentially producing more than 100 MW. TAE Technologies reckons it'll have a prototype of its Da Vinci generator supplying electrons to the grid in the early 2030s as well. Zap Energy is hoping its FuZE-Q reactor can create more energy than it uses by 2026.

None of those guys have signed a power supply deal yet, though. Helion, on the other hand, appears to have taken on some risk and put money where its mouth is. “This is a binding agreement that has financial penalties if we can’t build a fusion system,” Helion founder and CEO David Kirtley told The Verge. “We’ve committed to be able to build a system and sell it commercially to [Microsoft].”

According to a press release, "The plant is expected to be online by 2028 and will target power generation of 50 MW or greater after a 1-year ramp up period."

We'd need to see the terms of the agreement here to know exactly how excited to get. It's unclear exactly where these "financial penalties" will kick in, or exactly what risk Microsoft is taking on in signing this deal, so there's still plenty of wiggle room for doubt and healthy skepticism around this absolutely extraordinary claim.