GridCARE Raises $13.5M to Revolutionize AI Power Supply with Generative Grid Intelligence

Addressing AI's Growing Power Demand

GridCARE, an innovative company specializing in grid intelligence, has emerged from stealth mode after securing a $13.5 million seed funding round. The company aims to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing artificial intelligence today: reliable and scalable power access. The funding round was led by Xora, a deep tech venture firm backed by Temasek, with support from investors focused on climate, AI, and infrastructure.

The Urgent Need for Reliable Power

The AI industry is experiencing explosive growth, with market projections reaching $757.6 billion by 2025 and soaring to $3.68 trillion by 2034, according to Precedence Research. This rapid expansion is putting tremendous pressure on global power grids. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that electricity demand from data centers will more than double by 2030, largely driven by AI workloads. In the U.S., data centers are expected to account for nearly half of all new electricity demand growth, soon exceeding the energy consumption of heavy industries like steel and cement.

Amit Narayan, CEO and founder of GridCARE, emphasizes the importance of power in AI development: “Power is the new kingmaker in the AI arms race. Companies that secure reliable energy fastest will dominate the next generation of AI. GridCARE gives our partners that critical speed advantage.”

Accelerating Data Center Deployment with AI-Powered Grid Analysis

GridCARE’s platform leverages Generative AI and grid physics modeling to identify underutilized electricity capacity across thousands of utility networks. This approach allows developers to bring AI infrastructure online within 6 to 12 months, compared to the typical 5 to 7 years required for new substations and interconnections.

This "time-to-power" optimization is crucial for developers looking to deploy GPUs and CPUs quickly in a highly competitive AI landscape, where speed to scale can determine market leadership.

GridCARE simplifies the complex and fragmented processes involved in grid access by acting as a bridge between utility companies and hyperscale AI data center developers. Utilities benefit from new revenue streams and improved asset utilization, while developers can focus on deploying AI infrastructure without the burden of power acquisition.

Peter Freed, former Director of Energy Strategy at Meta and partner at New Horizon Group, highlights GridCARE’s impact: “GridCARE uncovers previously invisible grid capacity. It opens a new fast track to power, enabling power-first AI data center development.”

Experienced Team with Deep Energy and AI Expertise

The founding team at GridCARE brings extensive experience at the nexus of energy, AI, and sustainability. CEO Amit Narayan holds a PhD from UC Berkeley and previously founded AutoGrid, a climate-AI company acquired by Schneider Electric. His work on chip-level signal optimization applied to electric grids dates back over ten years, including collaborations with Stanford’s Precourt Energy Institute.

Co-founders include Stanford experts Ram Rajagopal and Liang Min, as well as Arun Majumdar, founding dean of Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability and former Google energy VP. Their shared mission is to unlock grid flexibility without relying on new fossil-fuel infrastructure.

Utilities Embracing Smarter Infrastructure Planning

GridCARE is gaining traction with utilities such as Portland General Electric (PGE) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). Larry Bekkedahl, SVP at PGE, remarks, “The rise of AI presents the biggest new electricity demand surge we’ve seen in decades. Collaborating with GridCARE enables faster, more confident infrastructure decisions.”

PG&E’s EVP Jason Glickman adds, “Smarter use of the infrastructure we already have is one of the most promising solutions to AI’s energy demands. GridCARE helps us unlock that potential.”

Introducing Power Caching

GridCARE is also pioneering the concept of Power Caching, a localized energy strategy similar to edge computing. By co-locating energy generation near AI data centers, Power Caching reduces grid stress and transmission losses, improving resilience and addressing congestion issues common in gigawatt-scale AI clusters.

Strategic Investors and Vision for the Future

GridCARE’s investors include Breakthrough Energy (founded by Bill Gates), Sherpalo Ventures, WovenEarth, Clearvision, Clocktower Ventures, and notable figures such as Tom Steyer, Ram Shriram, Balaji Prabhakar, and Gokul Rajaram. Their support underscores the critical importance of solving AI’s power challenges for the next decade of innovation.

Phil Inagaki, CIO of Xora, states, “GridCARE has found a solution to AI’s most limiting constraint: energy. Their generative AI platform has the potential to reshape how we think about grid access and scale.”

Transforming the Grid for the AI Era

As generative AI revolutionizes various fields, scaling these models rapidly requires rethinking power sourcing and grid management. GridCARE’s technology transforms complex grid data into actionable insights, accelerating AI infrastructure deployment and laying the groundwork for future AI advancements.