Claims solution can reduce grid connection time to 6-12 months
GridCARE, an AI startup focusing on expediting the route to market for data centers seeking a grid connection, has emerged from stealth.
The company announced that it has closed an oversubscribed $13.5 million funding round led by Xora, with participation from Aina Climate AI Ventures, Sherpalo Ventures, Breakthrough Energy, Overture, WovenEarth, Acclimate Ventures, Clearvision, and Clocktower Ventures.
"Power is the new kingmaker in the AI arms race," said Amit Narayan, CEO and founder of GridCARE. "Companies that secure reliable energy fastest will dominate the next generation of AI. By serving as the bridge between AI infrastructure developers and utility companies, GridCARE gives our partners the critical speed advantage they need to win this race while strengthening energy resilience."
The company, born out of the Stanford Sustainability Accelerator program, will work with data center operators and grid operators to hasten the time-to-power for their facilities. It aims to leverage advanced generative AI-based analysis to detect pockets with geographic and temporal capacity on the existing grid. By doing so, the company claims, it can reduce the time-to-power of data centers to 6-12 months.
GridCARE has partnered with several major US utilities, including Portland General Electric and Pacific Gas, to deploy its solution.
“The rise of AI presents the biggest new electricity demand surge we’ve seen in decades,” said Larry Bekkedahl, SVP of advanced energy delivery at Portland General Electric. “Collaborating with GridCARE and using advanced planning tools enables Portland General Electric to make more informed and faster decisions in bringing this critical infrastructure online with confidence.”
The company is headed up by Amit Narayan, who previously founded chip design automation firm Berkley Design Automation. Other co-founders of the company include Ram Rajagopal, Liang Min, and Arun Majumdar, who are all employees at Stanford University.
“GridCARE is solving one of the biggest bottlenecks to AI data centers today — access to scalable, reliable power. Led by seasoned entrepreneur Amit Narayan, the team brings deep domain expertise and has already demonstrated strong traction with utilities and hyperscalers,” said Peter Lim, partner at Xora.
The use of AI to better manage the electrical grid is gaining popularity, particularly amid skyrocketing energy demand from the data center sector.
Last month, PJM Interconnection, the US’ largest grid operator, partnered with Google-backed Tapestry to deploy its AI technology to facilitate faster grid connection timelines for power projects and large load users, like data centers.
Tapestry is a Google X 'moonshot project' that, through the use of AI, is building what they say is the first unified model of the grid. Initial rollout of the technology is expected to happen this year, with full deployment occurring over the course of several years through a phased approach.
