Who is Marathon Fusion CEO Kyle Schiller? Can the startup really turn mercury into gold?

An American startup by the name of Marathon Fusion has claimed that it has successfully turned mercury into gold using nuclear fusion, giving fresh attention to a centuries-old idea. The company says it has tested a process that converts mercury into stable gold atoms using neutrons generated by fusion reactions. The San Francisco-based startup made the claim on October 21. However, the company has not disclosed the exact quantity of gold produced, and the results have not been independently verified through peer-reviewed research, according to reports.

Here is everything to know about Marathon Fusion, its CEO Kyle Schiller, and whether nuclear fusion can really turn mercury into gold.

Who is the CEO of Marathon Fusion?

Kyle Schiller is the CEO of Marathon Fusion, a San Francisco-based startup working on nuclear fusion technology. The company came into existence in 2023 and is developing technology aimed at helping make commercial fusion power more practical.

According to the company's website, its leadership team also includes co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Adam Rutkowski and Chief Scientific Officer Jason Parisi.

Marathon Fusion says its work could allow future fusion power plants to generate electricity while also producing valuable materials, including gold and medical isotopes.

Can Marathon Fusion make gold?

Marathon Fusion claims it has demonstrated the conversion of mercury into gold using neutrons generated through nuclear fusion. However, the scale and commercial potential of the achievement remain uncertain.

In its announcement, the company said it had produced stable gold at a rate 10 times the previous benchmark set by CERN in 2025. It also shared gamma-ray measurements that it says showed the presence of mercury-197 and gold-197 after neutron irradiation.

The company has not disclosed how much gold it produced, and independent verification will be important in determining the significance of the results.

In a 2025 research paper, Marathon Fusion proposed that a commercial fusion reactor could potentially produce around two tonnes of gold per gigawatt of thermal power annually. This is a theoretical estimate based on modelling, not a demonstrated level of commercial production.

Is there a way to turn mercury into gold?

Yes. It is scientifically possible to convert mercury into gold through a process called nuclear transmutation. The process changes an atom's nucleus to produce a different element or isotope.

Unlike chemical reactions, which rearrange electrons and chemical bonds, nuclear reactions can change the number of protons or neutrons in an atomic nucleus. Since an element's identity depends on the number of protons it contains, changing its nucleus can turn one element into another.

However, producing gold this way is very different from manufacturing it commercially. The equipment, energy requirements, radiation controls and difficulty of producing meaningful quantities make the process expensive and technically challenging.

Can nuclear fusion create gold?

Marathon Fusion's proposed process uses neutrons from deuterium-tritium fusion reactions to bombard mercury-198. The reaction can produce mercury-197, an unstable isotope that decays into gold-197, the stable isotope of gold.

The company has argued that the process could eventually be incorporated into the design of commercial fusion power plants. In theory, this would allow a plant to generate electricity while also producing gold.

However, commercial fusion power remains a major engineering challenge. No commercial fusion power plant is currently supplying electricity to the grid, and the gold-production estimates have not been demonstrated at industrial scale.

Marathon Fusion's latest announcement could represent progress, but further scientific scrutiny and independent testing will be needed to establish how useful the process could become.