Exclusive: 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 today 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 said.

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.

⚔️ GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham is seeking Senate votes before the mid-June G7 meeting on bipartisan plans to impose massive U.S. tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy.

• Why it matters: Russian exports of oil, gas and other commodities provide lots of cash for the Kremlin's war on Ukraine.
• State of play: "By the G7 summit, we hope to have sanctions put in place — in coordination with Europe — to deliver an unequivocal message to China," Graham and co-sponsor Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D) said in a statement.
• What we're watching: The bill has 82 Senate backers, but Majority Leader John Thune has signaled he won't move it unless there's White House support.

📈 Crude oil prices jumped to start the week despite OPEC+ agreeing to another 411,000-barrel-per-day supply increase in July, with Brent up over 4% to $65.50.

• State of play: Market watchers say traders had already priced in the expected hike. ING analysts said in a note there had been suggestions of an even bigger hike. Geopolitical risk is also lifting prices.
• What they're saying: "Rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine added further support to the market this morning," they write, citing Ukraine's weekend drone strikes on Russian airfields.

🧳 The heads of DOE, EPA and Interior are in Alaska this week talking up plans for a huge new gas pipeline and LNG export proposal, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and more.

• What we're watching: Tangible signs of progress for the $44 billion LNG and pipeline proposal, which faces big private investment amid competing Gulf Coast supplies and the massive, remote project's price tag.

▶️ For the second time in two weeks, DOE is using emergency authorities to keep a power plant running past its scheduled retirement.

• Driving the news: Late Friday, Secretary Chris Wright told grid operator PJM to keep two units at a Constellation Energy plant in Pennsylvania running through late August. The gas-fired units, which can also run on oil, had been slated to shut down May 31. It follows a similar order for a Michigan coal-fired plant earlier in May.
• State of play: Wright's statement called the move needed to ensure reliable and affordable power during high-demand summer months. PJM, the grid operator for large parts of the Midwest and mid-Atlantic, called the order "prudent," citing a "confluence" of retirements and demand growth.
• What we're watching: Whether more of the mandates surface. It "could portend future muscular interventions by the DOE aimed at keeping preferred resources online," ClearView Energy Partners said in a note after the Michigan order.

✂️ The White House released more details on budget proposals that would deeply cut or kill low-carbon programs at DOE, EPA and other agencies.

• Why it matters: While these requests to Congress are typically just messaging, Trump 2.0 officials want to reshape agencies without explicit Capitol Hill sign-off.
• The big picture: The documents detail billions of dollars worth of specific programs EPA and DOE programs that officials want to greatly scale back or cancel.
• Go deeper: Full cross-agency request...DOE request...DOE high-level summary...EPA request

Texas, Florida and Oklahoma are America's lightning capitals, per weather data firm Vaisala Xweather.

Why it matters: The number of strikes is predicted to increase amid climate change, researchers have found.

• Lightning can present immediate danger to people, aircraft and infrastructure, and spark wildfires.

By the numbers: Texas has all of the top 10 U.S. counties ranked by strikes per square mile in 2024, per Vaisala Xweather's report.

• Walker County, Texas, had about 825 strikes per square mile in 2024, Limestone County, Texas, had 811, and Madison County, Texas, had 795.
• In terms of most lightning strikes overall, Polk County, Florida, is the big winner, with nearly 852,000 for the year.

The bottom line: These totals reflect thunderstorms and hurricanes driven by climate and geography in and around the Gulf. Go deeper.

DOE is canceling over $3.7 billion in awards for 24 projects through its Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations created under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

Why it matters: Friday's move is among the biggest and most specific cases yet of Trump 2.0 officials halting the Biden administration's unprecedented funding for low-carbon projects.

• The awards included projects at corporate giants including Exxon, Kraft Heinz and Eastman Chemical Company. Full story.

"If the United States doesn't recommit to new-generation vehicle development, the result could be one where in just a few years U.S. consumers may go on vacation abroad and discover that their rental car or taxi is running on a technology that looks different and is in many ways more attractive than what is available at home."

Why it matters: The U.S. faces long-term isolation and competitive harms in innovation by pulling back from pro-EV policies, her new post argues.