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

Data center power startup Emerald AI has secured $150 million in funding at a $1.05 billion valuation, expanding its commercial deployments globally. The company's core product, Emerald Conductor, optimizes artificial intelligence workloads by coordinating them with available onsite batteries and generation. This results in reduced power consumption from the facility when the system is under stress, while critical training and inference jobs continue to run unhindered.

Emerald's innovative approach accelerates the need for new transmission infrastructure, which typically involves a decade of permitting and construction, as highlighted by the International Energy Agency's prediction of AI data centers' contribution to nearly half of U.S. electricity demand growth by 2030. The startup conducted five successful live demonstrations on commercial loads at sites in Arizona, Illinois, Virginia, Oregon, and London, partnering with Nvidia, Oracle, National Grid, and regional utilities.

Founder and CEO Varun Sivaram reported that the technology now operates at full data center scale, commercially available. Commercial deployments have already commenced in California, with a data center flexing its entire load during peak demand periods. Notable customers include Silicon Valley Power, Digital Realty Trust, Nvidia, and various utilities and grid operators.

The Series A round was led by Energize Capital and DCVC, with participation from prominent investors such as Nvidia, Samsung Ventures, Siemens AG, GE Vernova, RWE AG, Aramco Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, JERA Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Radical Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon Capital, Emerson Collective, Earthshot Ventures, General Catalyst's scout fund, and individual investors John Doerr and Tom Steyer.

Emerald was founded in July 2025 in Washington, D.C., and has raised over $220 million in total funding.