OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has invested $20 million in Exowatt, an energy startup aiming to address the soaring electricity demands of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
What Happened: Altman, along with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has backed Exowatt, a company focusing on sustainable energy solutions for large data centers, reported The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Exowatt is developing a novel approach to solar power and energy storage to meet the energy needs of AI data centers.
Altman’s investment in Exowatt underscores the growing concern over the energy consumption of AI data centers. The surge in demand for electricity is not only a threat to the industry’s growth but also hinders the transition to clean energy.
Exowatt’s solution involves the use of solar lenses to convert sunlight into heat, which is then stored in basic materials. This stored energy can be used to generate electricity, providing a cost-effective and sustainable power source for data centers.
Exowatt’s CEO, Hannan Parvizian, emphasized that the company’s approach is unique due to its combination of solar and low-cost heat batteries in a single unit. The company plans to deploy ...