Exclusive: Power broker in AI boom draws takeover interest

Driving the news: The company — founded in February 2024 by three energy veterans — is being courted by multiple potential buyers, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

• A decision could come within weeks.
• Brian Janous, co-founder of Cloverleaf, declined to comment on acquisition discussions.

The big picture: Cloverleaf's rapid rise — and takeover interest — underscores the frenzy to lock down power as AI demand explodes.

Catch up fast: Natural gas is fast becoming a default choice to fuel the AI boom. Janous, who is also the firm's chief commercial officer, says Cloverleaf is proving another way by pooling existing clean energy.

"A lot of people default to the easy thing," Janous said in a recent interview in his office in downtown Seattle. "Doing this the more sustainable, lower-carbon way is actually better, faster and cheaper."

Follow the money: Cloverleaf has raised roughly $300 million, announced in July 2024.

• Backers include NGP Energy Capital Management and Sandbrook Capital, alongside investments from company leadership.

What they're saying: "I see Cloverleaf as an example of data center development done right," said Michael Thomas, founder and CEO of Cleanview, a market intelligence platform.

• "They are finding creative ways to build data centers and bring their own capacity, but they're doing it almost entirely with clean energy storage and flexible curtailment."

How it works: Cloverleaf's thesis: America's regional grids already have stranded or underused capacity. The challenge is coordination.

• "We have a lot of leverage to orchestrate solutions that are, right now, sitting in silos," said Janous. "It's more a business problem than a technical problem."

Zoom in: Most of that unrealized electric capacity is coming from renewable energy, but Janous said some of their projects have made use of natural gas plants that only run during peak demand.

• "We don't want to hitch our sites on the need to run a lot of new fossil fuels," Janous said.

The other side: Many developers are moving in the opposite direction, installing on-site natural gas because it's dispatchable and reliable.

• In parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest — America's AI hotbed — gas is increasingly the default for AI facilities.

By the numbers: Cloverleaf is pursuing projects totaling 10 to 15 gigawatts of peak power capacity — roughly 10 to 15 times Seattle's peak electricity demand.

• "That's a very big bite for anyone," Janous said.
• Projects have included large-scale developments in Wisconsin and Georgia.

The intrigue: Janous was Microsoft's first energy hire 15 years ago.

• Co-founders David Berry and Jonathan Abebe bring decades of electricity development experience across U.S. power markets.
• Despite managing multibillion-dollar prospects, Cloverleaf is lean — about 30 employees across its Houston headquarters and Seattle office.
• In Seattle, the team works out of a shared high-rise space. Janous showed up to our interview in jeans and a Seahawks jersey ahead of the Super Bowl.

Reality check: Community pushback is rising as developers propose city-sized data centers. Janous acknowledges that opposition could slow growth.

• "We're literally on the ground every single week talking with locals," he said.
• Some communities, he added, prefer data centers to factories because they don't drive population growth.

Yes, but: It backed out of at least one project in Wisconsin after local opposition intensified.

• "I definitely think the opposition is increasing," said Janous, who added the company still plans to pursue a project in that region. "We're not so Pollyannish that we believe everyone is going to be super excited we're there."

What we're watching: Whether Cloverleaf sells — and whether its clean-power-first model wins in this AI arms race.