An energy startup that aims to organize the mass operate of electricity through artificial intelligence receives multi-million support from investors, including A.I. top industry leader.
Exowatt, a startup that develops modules that store energy as heat and generate electricity for AI data centers, counts OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz among its investors – to the tune of $20 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A solar solution to the problem of energy operate by artificial intelligence
Exowatt is developing shipping container-sized modules equipped with solar lenses that convert solar energy into heat that can heat affordable material and can be stored for up to 24 hours. The modules then generate electricity by passing the stored heat through the motor. The company’s goal is to benefit from cost reduction by storing energy in the form of heat.
“There is no need to go back to fossil fuels to solve the energy problem in data centers… It is counterproductive,” Hannan Parvizian, chief executive of Exowatt, told the daily.
The company is reportedly focusing on using U.S.-made components in its modules to both move away from parts made in China and qualify for luxurious subsidies from the Inflation Control Act. Exowatt reportedly wants to offer electricity for as little as one cent per kilowatt hour, less subsidies, and hopes to deliver the modules later this year.
Both technology and climate leaders have noted how generative AI uses huge, gigantic amounts of energy – and that the industry you have to take this into account its huge electricity consumption.
“We won’t be able to continue developing artificial intelligence without addressing the issue of power” – Ami Badani, chief marketing officer of a semiconductor company Arm, said at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference this month. “ChatGPT requires 15 times more energy than a conventional web search engine.”
According to Research, 2% of global electricity consumption comes from data centers where AI models are trained. She warned that the technology could eventually be exploited constitute a quarter of energy consumption in the USA by 2030
Nine out of ten U.S. utilities reported this data centers as the main area of customer growth in the first quarter results, Reuters reported.
