Early Nvidia Investor Backs Startup to Tap Idle Grid Power

A startup working to unlock excess power grid capacity for data centers raised $64 million as utilities and hyperscalers race to ease an energy crunch constraining the build-out of artificial intelligence.

GridCARE lined up financing in a Series A round led by Sutter Hill Ventures, an original investor in Nvidia Corp., and with backing from venture capitalist John Doerr, bringing its total funding to $77.5 million. The company uses AI to analyze the power grid across millions of scenarios, identifying underused capacity that can connect large loads like data centers faster than waiting for new plants or transmission lines to be built.