Battery start-ups are moving into AI data centres where their specialist technology helps to smooth split-second power surges, driving what executives describe as “crazy” demand.
The rapid growth of AI data centres is creating a profitable niche for the battery makers, as operators seek technologies capable of responding to energy surges that can be equivalent to the electricity demand of a small town, occurring multiple times per second.
Alsym Energy, a US sodium-ion battery start-up backed by an investment arm of the Indian conglomerate Tata Group, said interest had soared over the past three months from data centre operators seeking ways to manage the frequent power transients caused by AI computing.