Emerald AI is a United States software company that develops tools to make AI data centers "power-flexible," able to reduce their draw from the electricity grid when the grid is stressed while protecting priority computing workloads. Its product, the Emerald Conductor platform, coordinates computational workloads with on-site generation, batteries and other resources to control a facility's power consumption (Source: businesswire.com). The company is led by its founder and chief executive, Varun Sivaram, and in September 2026 co-founded the AI Energy Management Alliance with Google and Nvidia.
| Founder and CEO | Varun Sivaram |
| Product | Emerald Conductor |
| Funding | More than $220 million raised as of August 2026 |
| Coalition | Founding member, AI Energy Management Alliance |
Snapshot
Valuation
| Date | Valuation | Round | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-25 | $1.05 billion | $150M Series A, co-led by Energize Capital and DCVC; total raised above $220M | (Source: businesswire.com) |
Business and product
Emerald AI describes its approach as treating data centers as "intelligent, responsive assets" rather than "inflexible consumers of electricity." The Conductor platform "dynamically orchestrates AI computational workloads and onsite energy resources to control a facility's power draw when the grid is stressed while protecting the performance of critical AI workloads." The company states that data centers running its software can connect to the grid faster and at larger scale, and that applying the approach across the AI build-out could unlock more than 100 gigawatts of capacity on the existing US grid; its customers include AI firms, data-center operators and electric utilities (Source: businesswire.com).
Sivaram has written that he founded the company after a conversation, about two years before September 2026, with the president of a large public power utility who described utilities and communities as being asked to serve as "foot soldiers" of the AI buildout (Source: fortune.com).
Demonstrations and deployments
On March 23, 2026, at CERAWeek, Nvidia and Emerald AI announced a collaboration with AES, Constellation, Invenergy, NextEra Energy, Nscale Energy & Power and Vistra on AI data centers built to Nvidia's Vera Rubin DSX reference design, whose DSX Flex software library connects facilities to grid services, with Conductor orchestrating compute flexibility alongside on-site generation and batteries. The release stated that the two companies had trialed power-flexibility demonstrations at five commercial data centers over the previous year, and that DSX Flex was expected to be deployed at commercial scale later in 2026 at the Nvidia AI Factory Research Center in Virginia (Source: nvidianews.nvidia.com).
The company's August 2026 funding release lists five completed demonstrations at commercial data centers in Arizona, Illinois, Virginia, Oregon and London, with partners including Nvidia, EPRI, Oracle, Nebius and National Grid. It states that the company has since deployed at an entire data center in California, launched with Silicon Valley Power what it calls the first Flexible Load Interconnection Program in the country, granting data centers expanded grid access in exchange for verified, dispatchable flexibility, and is working with Digital Realty and Nvidia in Manassas, Virginia on the nearly 100-megawatt Vera Rubin AI Research Factory, tested with EPRI, Dominion and the PJM Interconnection and slated to come online later in 2026 (Source: businesswire.com). Sivaram's September 16, 2026 essay in Fortune gives the count as six global demonstrations completed with Nvidia (Source: fortune.com); the difference from the company's own count of five three weeks earlier is not explained.
Funding
Emerald AI announced on August 25, 2026 an oversubscribed $150 million Series A at a valuation of $1.05 billion, co-led by Energize Capital and DCVC, bringing total funding to more than $220 million. Participants included Nvidia, Samsung Ventures, Siemens, Aramco Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, GE Vernova, RWE, JERA Ventures, ADVentures (Analog Devices' corporate venture fund), Sabanci Climate Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Radical Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon Capital, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, Emerson Collective, The Olayan Group, the Temerty Group, John Doerr, Tom Steyer, Earthshot Ventures, Collective Global and General Catalyst's scout fund. The company states that 12 Fortune Global 500 companies are investors and sit on its Strategic Advisory Board, and that it was named to the 2026 TIME100 Most Influential Companies list and as a 2026 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (Source: businesswire.com).
Policy positions
Emerald AI, Google and Nvidia launched the AI Energy Management Alliance on September 16, 2026 to press regulators and utilities to give flexible data centers faster grid connections. Sivaram said at the launch that "data centers that flex their power use in response to peak grid stress can connect faster and at far greater scale" (Source: businesswire.com), and told Axios that facilities should qualify for faster or larger connections only if their ability to cut demand is "verifiable and enforceable" (Source: axios.com). In Fortune he argued that behind-the-meter, off-grid campuses raise costs for other users and deprive utilities of anchor customers, and asked governors, regulators and federal policymakers to offer data centers that commit to flexibility "a faster and larger grid connection — and hold them to it" (Source: fortune.com). See Behind-the-Meter Power for Data Centers.
Relationships
- related: AI Energy Management Alliance (AEMA) — founding member
- related: Nvidia & TSMC — AI Compute Infrastructure — technology partner (DSX Flex) and Series A investor
- deploys-in: Energy and Electric Power Sector — software sold to utilities and data-center operators for grid flexibility
- related: AI Data Centers — grid interconnection for AI facilities
- related: Behind-the-Meter Power for Data Centers — the self-supply model the company argues against
- related: Constellation Energy, NextEra Energy — partners in the March 2026 flexible AI factory collaboration