Twenty-Five Companies Rewiring Power for the Compute Age
These 25 companies that span supply creation, grid intelligence, demand flexibility, and hyperscaler strategy are reengineering the global power system to match the unprecedented speed and scale of the AI era.
AI is now the most consequential new source of electricity demand on the planet. But the story that matters to operators, planners, and investors isn’t just the curve; it’s the firms bending it. From hyperscalers brokering first-of-their-kind clean-power deals to software platforms bidding batteries like quant desks, a new industrial stack is emerging—one part compute, one part electrons, all stitched together by machine learning.
A few proof points to orient the map:
- Orchestration at scale. Kraken (Octopus Energy’s platform) reports 70M+ customer accounts and 40+ GW of assets under software control, expanding from retail billing into flexibility, DER control, and utility ops—an OS play for grids and devices. (kraken.tech, Business Wire)
- On-site, dispatchable clean power for compute. Exowatt’s modular P3 advertises up to 24 hours of dispatchable solar-thermal output aimed at data centers and other 24/7 loads. (exowatt.com)
- Building clean capacity faster. Terabase secured $130M (Mar 2025) to scale robotics and automation that accelerate utility-scale solar construction—critical when grid interconnects lag AI buildouts. (Terabase Energy, Reuters)
- Compute–energy co-design. Crusoe positions “AI factories” that pair high-density racks with renewable-integrated power orchestration and on-site backup, backed by sizeable project finance. (Crusoe AI)
- First-of-kind clean supply deals. Google is taking 24/7 carbon-free power seriously through NV Energy/Fervo geothermal; Microsoft signed the world’s first fusion PPA with Helion (Constellation as power marketer). (blog.google, ThinkGeoEnergy, Helion)
- Data-center RE leadership. Equinix reports 96% renewable coverage (2024) across 268 sites; Digital Realty highlights multi-GW clean energy procurement and water-/energy-efficiency programs. (Equinix Sustainability, Digital Realty)
- Grid software and market muscle. Fluence’s AI-powered bidding (Fluence IQ/Mosaic) optimizes storage/renewables in ISO markets; Uplight (acquiring AutoGrid) unifies VPP/DERMS with demand response at scale. (Fluence, Uplight)
- Utilities & marketers rewiring participation. Puget Sound Energy with AutoGrid (100-MW VPP), Enel X flex programs tuned for data centers, and Gridmatic’s AI-enabled power marketing for merchant storage. (Utility Dive, Enel X, Gridmatic)
- Hardware that unlocks time. Form Energy’s 100-hour iron-air storage marches toward scale, a keystone for round-the-clock clean compute. (Form Energy, AP News)
- Utilities repowering for compute. In Europe, Engie, RWE, Enel are partnering with tech firms to convert legacy power sites into data-center “energy parks”—reusing interconnects, water, and land. (Reuters)
How these firms fit together
Think of the stack in four layers.
Layer 1 — Supply creation at AI speed. Terabase’s robotized solar buildouts and Exowatt’s dispatchable solar-thermal aim at the same bottleneck from opposite sides: one scales more clean megawatts faster; the other reshapes when those megawatts are available. Form Energy extends that window to 100 hours, making wind/solar act more like a steady plant when a training run hits its power peak. Crusoe, meanwhile, collapses the distance between power and compute by co-locating renewables, storage, and racks.
Layer 2 — Grid intelligence and market interface. Fluence IQ/Mosaic bids batteries and renewables into ISO markets with probabilistic forecasts; Gridmatic operates as an AI-enabled power marketer squeezing more value from volatility. Wärtsilä’s GEMS orchestrates mixed fleets—engines, batteries, solar—to serve firm loads and ancillary markets. These are the “market conductors,” turning portfolios into income streams and reliability assets.
Layer 3 — Demand flexibility at the edge. Kraken moves from billing to behavior, clustering and dispatching millions of customer devices and C&I loads. Uplight (absorbing AutoGrid) provides the utility-facing VPP/DR stack—forecasting, enrollments, dispatch, M&V—so programs actually move load. Enel X translates those capabilities for global industrials and data centers, monetizing flexibility and stabilizing grids under stress.
Layer 4 — Hyperscaler anchoring and site strategies. Google’s geothermal and carbon-aware scheduling, Microsoft’s fusion bet with Helion, and Amazon’s scale RE procurements (largest global corporate buyer) form the anchor contracts that derisk supply buildout. Equinix and Digital Realty operationalize those strategies across hundreds of facilities, standardizing PPAs, efficiency, and water stewardship. In parallel, utilities like NV Energy and PSE, and European majors (Engie, RWE, Enel) are rewiring legacy assets and interconnection queues to meet compute’s clock speed.
| Company | Segment | What they’re navigating | Example / Proof | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kraken (Octopus Energy) | Utility OS / Flex | AI-powered operating system for utilities; device orchestration & flexibility at scale | 70M+ accounts; 40+ GW under management | (kraken.tech, Business Wire) |
| Exowatt | Dispatchable solar-thermal | 24-hour dispatchable P3 units targeted at data centers | Modular, factory-built thermal storage | (exowatt.com) |
| Terabase Energy | Solar robotics | Robotics/automation to speed utility-scale solar deployment | $130M Series C (Mar 2025) | (Terabase Energy, Reuters) |
| Crusoe | Renewable-powered DCs | “AI factory” data centers w/ renewable power orchestration & on-site backup | JV financing; high-density rack design | (Crusoe AI) |
| Hyperscaler / 24×7 CFE | Carbon-aware scheduling; first-of-kind geothermal for data centers | NV Energy/Fervo supply in Nevada | (blog.google, ThinkGeoEnergy) | |
| Fervo Energy | Advanced geothermal | EGS projects for round-the-clock clean power | Project Red; larger Utah build | (WIRED, TIME) |
| Microsoft | Hyperscaler / clean PPAs | Novel clean power procurement tied to AI build | World’s first fusion PPA | (Helion) |
| Helion Energy | Fusion developer | Fusion PPA w/ Microsoft; Constellation as power marketer | Target 50 MW by 2028 | (Helion) |
| Equinix | Data-center RE strategy | Global PPAs/EACs; high RE coverage across sites | 96% renewable coverage (2024) | (Equinix Sustainability) |
| Digital Realty | DC developer/operator | Multi-GW clean energy procurement; water/energy efficiency | 2024 Impact Report highlights | (Digital Realty) |
| Fluence (Fluence IQ/Mosaic) | Market/bidding software | AI bidding & forecasting to optimize storage/renewables | CAISO-ready, probabilistic forecasts | (Fluence) |
| Uplight | VPP/DR platform | AI-powered demand mgmt; acquiring AutoGrid | Integrated DERMS + DR stack | (Uplight) |
| AutoGrid (now part of Uplight) | VPP/DERMS | Utility-scale VPPs; customer enrollment to dispatch | PSE 100-MW VPP | (Utility Dive) |
| Gridmatic | AI power marketer | Algorithmic trading & optimization for clean energy/batteries | Revenue uplift for merchant storage | (Gridmatic) |
| Wärtsilä (GEMS) | EMS / hybrid fleets | Portfolio-level optimization across thermal, storage, RE | Frequency control, arbitrage, reactive power | (Wartsila.com, DNV) |
| Enel X | DR / flexibility | DR & ancillary services for C&I and data centers | Flexibility programs (EU/APAC/NA) | (Enel X) |
| Form Energy | Long-duration storage | 100-hour iron-air enabling firm clean supply | $405M raise; factory scaling | (AP News, Form Energy) |
| Neara | Utility digital twin | 3D grid models for wildfire/vegetation risk & planning | SCE speeds veg mgmt by ~50% | (TIME) |
| Amazon | Hyperscaler / RE buyer | World’s largest corporate buyer of renewables | 600+ projects; repeated #1 ranking | (About Amazon, Procurement Magazine, ESG Today) |
| Engie | Utility / conversion | Repurposing legacy plants, direct energy parks for DCs | European conversions w/ hyperscalers | (Reuters) |
| RWE | Utility / conversion | Legacy plant conversions; fast-track interconnect | Data-center energy parks in EU | (Reuters) |
| Enel | Utility / conversion | Similar conversions + renewables coupling | “Energy park” co-location strategy | (Reuters) |
| NV Energy | Utility / 24×7 CFE | Routes Fervo geothermal to Google data centers | First-of-kind commercial arrangement | (ThinkGeoEnergy) |
| Constellation Energy | Power marketer | Manages transmission/marketing for Microsoft–Helion fusion PPA | PPA structuring for novel supply | (Helion) |
| Puget Sound Energy (PSE) | Utility / VPP | Scaling VPP to 100 MW with AutoGrid (now Uplight) | Customer aggregation + flexible capacity | (Utility Dive) |
| Enel North America | DR for data centers | Positions data centers as flexible grid resources | DR results during 2025 heat events | (enelnorthamerica.com) |
What this roster tells us (and what to watch)
- Contracts are productizing “24×7 CFE.” Google’s geothermal and Microsoft’s fusion PPA are early instances of time-granular clean energy matching—vital to align AI loads with verifiable, hourly clean supply. Expect replication with nuclear restarts, geothermal scale-ups, and thermal-storage hybrids. (ThinkGeoEnergy, Helion)
- Flex + markets = resilience. As ISOs integrate more batteries and DR, software layers (Fluence, Gridmatic, Uplight/AutoGrid, GEMS) will be decisive in turning portfolios into flexible capacity and merchant revenue. AI is as much a trading edge as it is an engineering edge. (Fluence, Gridmatic, Wartsila.com)
- Infrastructure speed is strategy. Terabase’s robotics and Engie/RWE/Enel conversions show a premium on time to power: repurpose existing interconnects when possible; modularize when not. Exowatt and Form Energy hedge intermittency with dispatchable/long-duration architectures fit for training cycles, inference surges, and SLAs. (Reuters, exowatt.com, AP News)
- Hyperscalers remain the anchor tenants of the clean-power buildout. Amazon’s sustained PPA leadership, together with Equinix/Digital Realty site-level execution, creates the bankable demand signal developers need to finance atypical assets (geothermal, long-duration, eventually fusion). (Procurement Magazine, ESG Today, Equinix Sustainability, Digital Realty)
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References
- “About Kraken,” Kraken Technologies, accessed August 9, 2025, https://kraken.tech/; “National Grid partners with Kraken,” Kraken press resources, accessed August 9, 2025. (kraken.tech)
- Exowatt, “Powering AI with 24-hour Dispatchable Energy,” accessed August 9, 2025, https://www.exowatt.com/; “Exowatt P3,” accessed August 9, 2025, https://www.exowatt.com/solutions. (exowatt.com)
- Terabase Energy, “Terabase Secures $130 Million Series C from SoftBank Vision Fund 2,” March 13, 2025, https://www.terabase.energy/resources/terabase-energy-secures-130-million-series-c-from-softbank-vision-fund-2; Reuters, “Terabase Energy secures $130 million,” March 13, 2025. (Terabase Energy, Reuters)
- Crusoe, “The AI Factory Company” and “Scalable AI Data Centers,” accessed August 9, 2025, https://www.crusoe.ai/ and https://www.crusoe.ai/data-centers. (Crusoe AI)
- Michael Terrell, “A first-of-its-kind geothermal project is now operational,” Google Blog, November 28, 2023, https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/sustainability/google-fervo-geothermal-energy-partnership/; ThinkGeoEnergy, “Google to increase geothermal power supply…,” June 13, 2024. (blog.google, ThinkGeoEnergy)
- Helion Energy, “Helion announces world’s first fusion PPA with Microsoft,” May 10, 2023, https://www.helionenergy.com/articles/helion-announces-worlds-first-fusion-ppa-with-microsoft/. (Helion)
- Equinix, “Efficiency & Clean Power,” 2024, https://sustainability.equinix.com/environment/efficiency-and-clean-power/; “Equinix signs first renewable energy PPA in Japan,” April 1, 2025. (Equinix Sustainability, Equinix)
- Digital Realty, “2024 Impact Report highlights,” July 1, 2025, https://www.digitalrealty.com/about/esg; “2024 Impact Report press release,” July 1, 2025. (Digital Realty)
- Fluence, “Fluence IQ Digital Platform,” accessed August 9, 2025, https://fluenceenergy.com/fluence-iq-digital-platform/; “Mosaic Intelligent Bidding Software,” accessed August 9, 2025, https://fluenceenergy.com/mosaic-intelligent-bidding-software/; “Energy bidding software—CAISO,” accessed August 9, 2025. (Fluence)
- Uplight, “Clean Energy Solutions,” and “Demand Management / Demand Response,” accessed August 9, 2025, https://uplight.com/; “Uplight to Acquire AutoGrid,” Dec 14, 2023. (Uplight)
- Utility Dive, “Puget Sound Energy, AutoGrid aim to develop a 100-MW VPP,” Nov 28, 2023, https://www.utilitydive.com/news/puget-sound-energy-autogrid-pse-virtual-power-plant-vpp/700806/. (Utility Dive)
- Gridmatic, company site, accessed August 9, 2025, https://www.gridmatic.com/. (Gridmatic)
- Wärtsilä, “GEMS Digital Energy Platform,” accessed August 9, 2025, https://www.wartsila.com/; case references, 2024–2025. (Wartsila.com, DNV)
- Enel X (Global & North America), flexibility/demand response content, June–July 2025 updates, https://www.enelx.com and regional pages. (Enel X)
- Form Energy, technology pages and funding reports, 2024–2025, https://formenergy.com/; AP, Oct 2024. (Form Energy, AP News)
- TIME, “Neara,” April 2024; Neara product resources (vegetation/digital twin), 2024–2025, https://neara.com/. (TIME, Neara)
- Amazon, “Largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy,” Jan 2024–Jan 2025 updates; ESG Today/Procurement Mag; Amazon Sustainability. (About Amazon, Procurement Magazine, ESG Today)
- Reuters, “Europe’s old power plants to get digital makeover driven by AI boom,” Aug 5, 2025. (Reuters)
