Aug 25 (Reuters) – Emerald AI, which develops software to help AI data centers reduce or shift power usage when electricity grids are under stress, said on Tuesday it had raised $150 million in a funding round that valued the company at $1.05 billion.
Investor appetite for AI infrastructure startups has intensified over the past year as tech companies race to expand data center capacity, driving up valuations and accelerating funding rounds for firms addressing bottlenecks such as power availability.
Here are some more details:
• The Series A round was co-led by Energize Capital and DCVC and included participation from several financial and strategic investors, bringing the company’s total capital raised to more than $220 million.
• The company said it was transforming AI data centers into flexible grid assets that dynamically adjust power consumption in response to grid conditions.
• Morgan Stanley projects that global electricity demand will increase by more than 1 trillion kWh annually through 2030, with data centers contributing nearly 20% of this growth.
• “We founded Emerald AI on the conviction that the intelligence driving the AI revolution could solve its own greatest bottleneck: power,” said Emerald AI, Founder and CEO Dr. Varun Sivaram.
• The company said it would use the new capital to scale commercial deployments worldwide with its customers, which include leading AI firms, data center operators, and electric power utilities.
(Reporting by Pragyan Kalita in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
