Exclusive: Ex-Microsoft, BP execs unite on quick data center power
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios.
Former Microsoft and BP execs are launching a startup to quickly deploy data centers with on-site power — and very high efficiency.
Why it matters: Rapidly building and powering data centers — and doing it without straining grids or spiking emissions — is key to the global AI race.
Driving the news: The startup GridFree AI, born in "electron economy" incubator Montauk Climate, emerges from stealth Monday with $5 million led by Giant Ventures.
- Its modular, off-grid "power foundry" concept integrates gas power, battery storage, and cooling with computing infrastructure.
- It's "systematic, repeatable, and becomes a manufacturing process, not a stick-built process," GridFree AI co-founder and executive chairman Ralph Alexander told Axios exclusively.
The big picture: Time is money. The tech "dramatically" cuts development timelines, the company said, enabling tech companies to accelerate revenue generation.
- They envision additive units to match various computing needs and their growth, with multiple gigawatts of scale possible.
- Alexander compares it to a "Lego set that you just continue to connect."
State of play: Alexander is the former CEO of power producer Talen Energy and was also once CEO of BP's gas, power and renewables unit.
- The other co-founder is Patrick Yantz, a top data center infrastructure exec at Microsoft until late 2024.
- Advisers include Gary Wojtaszek, the former CEO of data center heavyweight CyrusOne, and Tim Duncan, former CEO of the oil and gas company Talos Energy.
How it works: GridFree AI says its system cuts capital and operating costs by a third via "elimination of legacy infrastructure," such as diesel generators and traditional fan cooling.
- It converts gas into electricity and cooling with 90% efficiency and ensures more power is used for the actual data center IT and processing units, which means much lower CO2, it said.
- "The efficiency of the overall solution enables a 50% increase in available power for IT loads," the announcement states.
Reality check: Building and deploying new hard tech is really tough. And competition is intense, with lots of deep pockets and big brains trying to crack the data center energy code.
- But Philip Krim, Montauk Climate's co-founder and CEO, said GridFree AI has key advantages.
- It brings to data centers the oil and gas industry's expertise on supply chains and building and deploying assets in predictable and scalable ways, he said.
What we're watching: The company has ID'd sites in the southeastern U.S. that have gas access, fiber-optic connectivity, favorable regulations, and access to sequestration infrastructure if CO2 capture is ever integrated.
- "We reverse engineered and basically asked our consultants to tell us, where would you build something with a minimum amount of NIMBY issues and NGO issues," Alexander said.
- It also sees opportunities in the U.K. and Europe. The startup has held technical discussions with multiple hyperscalers, the execs said.
The bottom line: "The special sauce of GridFree AI is we can build the power foundry and the cooling operation faster and operate it more efficiently than anyone else out there," Krim said.
