Echion and Proper Voltage Partner to Develop 1.6MW UPS Platform for AI Data Centers

Battery materials developer Echion Technologies has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with battery storage firm Proper Voltage to co-develop an integrated Uninterruptible Power Supply platform tailored for AI data centers, the two companies announced.

The collaboration will see Echion's XNO battery technology integrated into Proper Voltage's existing 480V and 800V Vault UPS system, creating a unified product dubbed VaultX. According to the companies, the system will deliver 1.6MW of power and 84kWh of capacity in 480V or 800V rack configurations, with the aim of significantly shortening deployment timelines while mitigating the impact of power swings that are increasingly common in high-density AI compute environments.

The partnership underscores a growing push across the data center industry to rethink power infrastructure as AI workloads place unprecedented demands on uptime, power quality, and operational resilience. Conventional UPS architectures, built around legacy battery chemistries, have struggled to keep pace with the rapid charge and discharge cycles required by modern AI facilities, where even brief power disturbances can disrupt training runs and inference services worth millions of dollars.

Echion's XNO technology is an anode chemistry that the Cambridge, UK-based company says enables lithium-ion batteries to safely charge or discharge in three to six minutes across more than 50,000 cycles. That capability is central to the VaultX value proposition, according to Echion CEO Jean de La Verpilliere. "AI data centers need exactly what XNO was built for, which is extremely high charge and discharge rates sustained across tens of thousands of cycles," he said. "Our materials and cells are built for duty cycles that aren't survivable for conventional chemistries, and collaborating with Proper Voltage enables us to implement these capabilities in a market-leading UPS platform and ensure that operators can benefit from VaultX in the shortest possible amount of time."

Proper Voltage, headquartered in Carlsbad, California, develops control and integration technology designed to help advanced batteries operate reliably in power systems without requiring complete redesigns. CEO Charlier Welch noted that the company's architecture was intentionally built for technology transitions. "Our architecture was purposely designed so that operators can adopt new and emerging battery technology without redesigning their power systems, which is why integrating XNO into our Vault architecture is straightforward," he said. "What this system changes for an operator is the business case."

For data center operators, the implications extend beyond incremental hardware improvement. As AI clusters grow denser and more power-hungry, UPS systems are evolving from passive backup assets into active components of power management strategy. A platform capable of handling rapid, repeated charge-discharge cycles could reduce reliance on oversized battery banks, lower total cost of ownership, and improve grid-interactive capabilities. The MoU between Echion and Proper Voltage signals that battery innovation is becoming a competitive differentiator in the race to build AI-ready data center infrastructure.