Emerald AI Secures $150M Series A at $1.05B Valuation to Solve AI Data Centers' Power Crisis

Emerald AI valued at $1.05 billion after Series A funding round

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: Reporting by Pragyan Kalita in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

The fix for AI's power problem is turning it down

Emerald AI has raised $150mn at a $1.05bn valuation, backed by Nvidia, Siemens, RWE and the CIA-linked In-Q-Tel. Its software slows AI workloads when the grid is stressed. According to the company, the approach could free more than 100 gigawatts on the existing US grid. A two-year-old company is now worth $1.05bn. It writes software that makes data centres use less electricity on demand. Emerald AI raised $150mn in an oversubscribed Series A, the company announced on Tuesday. Energize Capital and DCVC co-led it, and the round takes total funding past $220mn. The investor list is the tell. Nvidia, Siemens, RWE and GE Vernova all took part. So did Aramco Ventures, Samsung Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, JERA Ventures and the CIA-backed In-Q-Tel, alongside John Doerr and Tom Steyer. Twelve Fortune Global 500 companies now hold stakes and sit on the company's strategic advisory board. What the software actually does Emerald Conductor sorts computing jobs by how much delay each customer will tolerate. A utility signals that the grid is under strain. The platform then slows, pauses, caps or moves the jobs that can wait. That is a different target from most efficiency software, which adjusts cooling equipment and leaves the computing alone. Emerald goes at the workload itself. Founder and chief executive Varun Sivaram held climate policy roles in the Biden administration before starting the company in 2024. Its chief scientist, Ayse Coskun, is a Boston University computer science professor whose research opened the field. The claim Applied across the buildout, the approach could unlock more than 100 gigawatts of untapped capacity on the existing United States grid, the company says. That power would arrive years before anyone could build new generation and transmission. Building grid infrastructure can take a decade. The release cites the International Energy Agency for its other number. Data centres will drive nearly half the growth in US electricity demand through 2030. The intelligence driving the AI revolution could solve its own greatest bottleneck, Sivaram said, and that bottleneck is power. Why a utility would want this Silicon Valley Power serves roughly 55 data centres across 20 square miles in Santa Clara, including Nvidia and Intel. It is one of the most energy-intensive service areas in California. All the spare capacity the utility once had is now spoken for, its director Nicolas Procos told Sri Muppidi at The New York Times. That leaves two options. Build out the system, or find creative solutions. Silicon Valley Power picked the second. It has launched a Flexible Load Interconnection Program with Emerald, which grants data centres expanded grid access in exchange for verified, dispatchable flexibility. What has actually been demonstrated The strongest published result comes from a field test in Phoenix in May 2025. Emerald and its partners cut the power draw of a 256-GPU Nvidia cluster by 25% from its average base load. They held it there for three hours. Across 33 experiments the system managed 212 jobs, and none broke its predefined service tier. Power prediction was off by 4.52% against average experiment power. Marcus Schuler set out the limits for Implicator. Emerald personnel and partners wrote the study, and it covered one pre-profiled cluster. It slowed or paused batch training and fine-tuning, and left real-time inference, streaming and model-serving untouched. Measuring anything beyond a single cluster will take larger deployments with full-site telemetry, the authors said. The European test happened in London Emerald has run five commercial demonstrations, in Arizona, Illinois, Virginia, Oregon and London. Partners included Nvidia, Oracle, Nebius, the research body EPRI and National Grid. The London site puts the approach in front of a market where the constraint bites hardest. Britain has an Essex data centre that waited on a grid connection. And 63% of new European capacity is now going outside the big five markets, largely because of queues and land. RWE and Siemens both invested, and RWE sits on the advisory board. European utilities are buying into an American company's answer to a European problem. Who controls the switch A successful test does not create a commercial right to interrupt someone's machines. Nobody has resolved that question, and it is the real obstacle. Full utility control of the load-side breaker "is non-negotiable" in exchange for faster interconnection, Silicon Valley Power's chief operating officer Chris Karwick has said. Operators resist handing that over, because an abrupt shutdown can damage expensive hardware. No standardised binding agreement between a utility and a data centre existed as of late June, Schuler reported. Bill credits are often too small to justify delaying lucrative work. Faster grid access is the stronger inducement. Steven Carlini, Schneider Electric's chief advocate for AI and data centres, put the choice plainly. Data centres can slow, cap or shift workloads, he said, but whether they want to is questionable. The emissions result is not automatic Moving computing work into cheaper off-peak hours can raise emissions, where fossil generation supplies the marginal power. A Green Software Foundation policy review found as much in March. It also found that most demonstrations in the field were under two years old and favoured workloads that were easy to defer. What the investors are buying The binding constraint on AI is no longer chips or capital, said John Tough, managing partner at Energize Capital. It is power, and software is the fastest way through it. DCVC's Zachary Bogue framed it as a change in category. The platform turns data centres into grid-responsive assets rather than energy-hogging liabilities, he said. Interconnection rules written for last century's factories keep excess power locked up, said Shawn Xu of Lowercarbon Capital. Rob Toews of Radical Ventures was blunter still: the bottleneck for AI is not compute, it is energy capacity. The paperwork lagged the announcement A Form D filed on 3 August recorded $90,229,639 sold toward a planned $150mn offering, Schuler noted. It named neither the valuation nor the lead investors. Reuters put the round at $150mn and the valuation at $1.05bn, reporting on Tuesday. It cited a separate Morgan Stanley projection. Global electricity demand will rise by more than a trillion kilowatt hours a year through 2030, with data centres supplying nearly 20% of that growth. The pitch behind the pitch Emerald is selling a way out of a political problem as much as a technical one. The backlash against data centres has reached the point where Texas audits connections before granting them, and Greg Abbott now says the industry dug its own grave. Some operators have concluded the grid is not worth the argument. Amazon is building a Texas facility that will not touch the grid at all, generating its own power on site. Sivaram wants the opposite. His goal is to make data centres grid-flexible and, in doing so, transform them from villains into heroes, he told The New York Times. Whether that works depends on something no funding round settles, which is whether operators will hand a utility the authority to turn their machines down.

Emerald AI Raises $150 Million Series A at $1.05 Billion Valuation to Scale Power-Flexible AI Data Centers

* Emerald AI is tackling AI's power crunch by transforming AI data centers into flexible grid assets that dynamically adjust power consumption in response to power grid conditions, an approach that can unlock more than 100 gigawatts of capacity on the existing U.S. grid for AI while protecting grid reliability and energy affordability for communities. The oversubscribed round was co-led by Energize Capital and DCVC, including participation from leading global financial and strategic investors, and brings Emerald AI's total funding raised to more than $220 million. Having completed five commercial demonstrations around the world, Emerald AI has entered commercial scaling: its software is now deployed commercially at multi-megawatt, full data center scale, and the company serves customers spanning leading AI firms, data center operators, and electric power utilities. As Emerald AI convenes the AI and energy ecosystem to advance power-flexible AI data centers, 12 Fortune Global 500 companies now hold investments in Emerald AI. WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--August 25, 2026-- Emerald AI, the company transforming data centers into flexible assets for the power grid, today announced it has raised $150 million in an oversubscribed Series A financing at a valuation of $1.05 billion. The round was co-led by Energize Capital and DCVC, joined by a global group of leading financial and strategic investors-the company now counts 12 Fortune Global 500 companies as investors. With five global demonstrations complete, Emerald AI's technology is now deployed commercially, dynamically flexing power consumption at multi-megawatt, full data center scale. The company will use the new capital to scale commercial deployments worldwide with its customers, which include leading AI firms, data center operators, and electric power utilities. Rather than treating data centers as inflexible consumers of electricity, Emerald AI transforms them into intelligent, responsive assets that are good grid citizens and protect energy affordability and reliability for local communities. The Emerald Conductor software platform dynamically orchestrates AI computational workloads and onsite energy resources to control a facility's power draw when the grid is stressed while protecting the performance of critical AI workloads. The result is AI infrastructure that strengthens the electric grid rather than straining it. The financing arrives at an inflection point for American energy. Building new grid infrastructure can take a decade or more, while data centers are projected to account for nearly half of the growth in U.S. electricity demand through 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. Data centers running Emerald AI's software can connect to the grid faster and at larger scale, support grid reliability during periods of stress, and help hold down energy costs for the communities around them. Applied across the AI build-out, this approach can unlock more than 100 gigawatts of untapped capacity in the U.S. alone on the existing United States power grid, power available years before new infrastructure can be built. "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. "Our demonstrations around the world proved that data centers can adjust their power use precisely when the grid needs relief, without compromising critical computing workloads. Today that technology runs commercially at full data center scale, and this financing lets us take it everywhere AI is built, so the AI era can accelerate while the grid becomes more reliable and more affordable for the communities it serves." The round drew together the companies building the AI era and the companies powering it. Energize Capital, a leading multi-strategy investment firm focused on digital solutions for the energy transition, co-led the financing alongside DCVC, one of the world's foremost deep tech venture firms, known for backing companies that turn frontier science and engineering into industrial-scale businesses. The round also convened leading financial and strategic investors across North America, Europe, and Asia. Twelve Fortune Global 500 companies are now investors in Emerald AI and sit on the company's Strategic Advisory Board, working directly with the company on product integration and commercial deployment across the AI and energy ecosystem. "The binding constraint on AI is no longer chips or capital; it is power, and software is the fastest way through it. Emerald AI has converted world-class research into commercial deployments faster than any company we have seen in this category, and we are proud to co-lead this round as the team defines how AI infrastructure and the grid grow together," said John Tough, Managing Partner at Energize Capital. "Emerald AI's compute workload orchestration platform makes flexibility a permanent feature of how data centers are powered. This turns data centers into grid-responsive assets instead of energy-hogging liabilities -- increasing America's strength in AI, decreasing rises in electrical bills for communities, and protecting the environment. This is deep tech at its best," said Zachary Bogue, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, DCVC. Over the past year, Emerald AI has completed five successful demonstrations at commercial data centers in Arizona, Illinois, Virginia, Oregon, and London, working alongside partners including NVIDIA, EPRI, Oracle, Nebius, and National Grid as well as regional utilities and grid operators, proving at live commercial sites that AI data centers can flex their power use on the grid's schedule. With its demonstration phase complete, the company has entered commercial scaling, deploying at an entire data center in California that proved grid-responsive power flexibility during peak grid strain. Emerald AI now serves customers across the AI power value chain, from electric power utilities to leading AI companies to global data center operators, with additional large-scale deployments planned for later this year. Emerald AI partnered with Silicon Valley Power to launch its first-in-the-nation Flexible Load Interconnection Program, which grants data centers expanded grid access in exchange for verified, dispatchable flexibility. And in Manassas, Virginia, Emerald AI is working with Digital Realty and NVIDIA to bring online the world's first power-flexible AI factory, the nearly 100-megawatt Vera Rubin AI Research Factory, tested in collaboration with EPRI, Dominion, and the PJM Interconnection and slated to come online later this year. The company was also recently named one of the 2026 TIME 100 Most Influential Companies as well as a 2026 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. The Series A round was co-led by Energize Capital and DCVC. Several of the world's largest companies and leading financial investors participated, including NVIDIA, Samsung Ventures, Siemens, Aramco Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, GE Vernova, RWE, JERA Ventures, ADVentures (ADI's corporate venture capital fund), Sabanci Climate Ventures, In-Q-Tel (IQT), Radical Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon Capital, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, Emerson Collective, The Olayan Group, the Temerty Group, John Doerr, Tom Steyer, Earthshot Ventures, Collective Global, and General Catalyst's scout fund. Hear more from our investors: https://www.emeraldai.co/blog/150-million-series-a-valuation-investor-quotes About Emerald AI Emerald AI transforms AI data centers into flexible assets for the power grid, securing larger and faster power connections for AI infrastructure, protecting electricity grid reliability, and advancing energy affordability for communities. The Emerald Conductor software platform is the intelligent interface between the world's two most valuable networks, power grids and AI infrastructure, unlocking critical power capacity for the AI era. For more information, visit www.emeraldai.co. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260825127649/en/

Data center power startup Emerald AI raises $150M at $1.05B valuation

Data center power startup Emerald AI Inc. today said that it had raised $150 million in new funding in an oversubscribed round at a valuation of $1.05 billion. Emerald will put the money into scaling commercial deployments worldwide. The company's core product, called Emerald Conductor, is software that schedules artificial intelligence workloads against the batteries and generation available onsite. Power draw at the facility comes down when the local system is stressed, and critical training and inference jobs keep running. The utility, in effect, gets a site it can dispatch like a generator. New transmission needs a decade of permitting and construction, and AI data centers are not waiting. The International Energy Agency expects the sector to drive nearly half of U.S. electricity demand growth through 2030. Emerald estimates that flexible operation could unlock more than 100 gigawatts of capacity on the existing U.S. system, years before new construction could deliver it. Emerald spent the past year running five demonstrations on live commercial load, at sites in Arizona, Illinois, Virginia, Oregon and London. Partners included Nvidia Corp., Oracle Corp. and National Grid plc, plus regional utilities and grid operators. Founder and Chief Executive Varun Sivaram said the demonstrations showed data centers can "adjust their power use precisely when the grid needs relief, without compromising critical computing workloads." That technology now runs commercially at full data center scale, he said in the funding release. Commercial deployment followed in California, where a data center flexed its entire load during a stretch of peak demand. Utilities, AI companies and data center operators are on the customer list now. Emerald has more large installations due before the end of the year. Silicon Valley Power, the municipal utility serving Santa Clara, California, has set up a Flexible Load Interconnection Program with Emerald. Data centers that commit to verified, dispatchable flexibility get faster and larger interconnection under it. A bigger test is coming in Manassas, Virginia. Emerald is working there with Digital Realty Trust Inc. and Nvidia on the nearly 100-megawatt Vera Rubin AI Research Factory, due online later this year. Dominion Energy Inc., PJM Interconnection and the Electric Power Research Institute are helping run the tests. Energize Capital and DCVC co-led the Series A round. The investor list runs to Nvidia, Samsung Ventures, Siemens AG, GE Vernova Inc., RWE AG, Aramco Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, JERA Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Radical Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon Capital, Emerson Collective, Earthshot Ventures and General Catalyst's scout fund. John Doerr and Tom Steyer invested as individuals. Twelve of the backers are Fortune Global 500 companies, all of them on a strategic advisory board that works with Emerald on product integration. Emerald launched publicly in July 2025 out of Washington, D.C. Investors have now put more than $220 million into the company.

Emerald AI, Inc. announced that it has received $150 million in funding from a group of investors

On August 25, 2026, Emerald AI, Inc. closed the transaction. The company has received $59,770,361 in its second and final tranche co-led by new investors, Energize Capital LLC and DCVC, bringing total funding raised in this transaction to be $150,000,000. The transaction also included participation from new investors, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Aramco Ventures, Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, GE Vernova Inc. , RWE Aktiengesellschaft, JERA Ventures, ADVentures, Sabanci Climate Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Inc., Marunouchi Innovation Partners Co., Ltd., Emerson Collective, LLC, The Olayan Group, the Temerty Group, Collective Global, scout fund, a fund managed by General Catalyst Group Management, LLC, returning investors, NVIDIA Corporation, Salesforce Ventures, LLC, Radical Ventures Investments Inc., Energy Impact Partners LP, Lowercarbon Capital LLC, Earthshot Ventures, LLC, individual investors, John Doerr and Tom Steyer. The transaction has been raised at a post money valuation of $1,050,000,000.