The AI Boom Needs Clean Power
Why we need sustainable infrastructure to power the AI revolution.
September 18, 2025
Salesforce Ventures has long focused on backing companies that enable the future of enterprise. Today, that increasingly means addressing the foundational infrastructure powering AI. Every new breakthrough in generative models, autonomous systems, or intelligent automation is powered by an increasingly intertwined set of physical infrastructure: energy generation, power transmission, energy storage, complex grid infrastructure, and, ultimately, data centers.
With our focus on investing in both enterprise innovation and climate tech, we’re keenly interested in how AI is shaping the future of energy. The insatiable need for compute to power AI models is fueling a boom in data center capacity and, consequently, a rise in energy consumption.
BCG projects U.S. data center electricity demand is set to increase to up to 130 GW by 2030 due to AI. For context, this would represent close to 12% of total U.S. annual demand today, or the equivalent of the electricity used by 100 million U.S. households. Said another way, the U.S. economy is set to consume more electricity for processing data by the end of the decade than for all manufacturing of energy-intensive goods, including aluminum, steel, and cement.
The challenge with AI’s demand for energy is twofold.
For one, the current grid is simply not built to support this level of energy demand. Even the best-run hyperscalers are facing multi-year interconnection delays and rising operational costs. Analysts warn that 40% of AI data center projects could hit power bottlenecks by 2027, and three quarters of CIOs may face energy constraints by 2030.
At the same time, continued reliance on fossil fuels to meet short-term energy demand poses significant climate risk. Today, fossil fuels supply 56% of the data center energy in the world, and are expected to meet 40% of new demand by the end of the decade. Based on this trajectory, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that data centers could become one of the fastest-growing sources of global emissions.
At Salesforce Ventures, we view a proactive shift toward clean, reliable energy as not only environmentally responsible — but also essential to the continued growth and affordability of AI. Salesforce as a whole has spent over a decade working to decarbonize our operations and champion environmental innovation and collective action. These lessons from our corporate partners have taught us that technology, when harnessed thoughtfully, has the power to accelerate solutions to the world’s biggest challenges. For these reasons, the Salesforce Ventures team is now actively investing across the AI/energy value chain. We’re looking at technologies that optimize data center development and operations, next-generation energy supply companies, and grid solutions that enable sustainable AI infrastructure at scale.
Ahead of Climate Week, we wanted to share a few opportunities in the energy space we’re leaning into and are excited to learn more about.
Energy Supply
Energy supply companies offer low-carbon baseload power and distributed renewables designed for AI-scale loads. Within this category, we’re excited by power source businesses like Base Power, which offers affordable backup battery power, and WeaveGrid, which is working to optimize EV charging to unlock energy on the grid. There are also energy demand response companies like Emerald AI (AI-powered data center energy optimization), Piclo Energy (demand response marketplace), Leap (demand response aggregation platform), and Texture (AI platform for coordinating energy operations) that are working to help power grids better manage energy supply and demand. Meanwhile, companies like KoBold Materials and Vulcan Elements are working to unearth the rare minerals needed for clean energy development (e.g., cobalt, lithium, and nickel needed for batteries). New companies have also spun up bringing AI into the fold for optimizing power generation, such as Juna AI (AI agents for manufacturing optimization), Applied Computing (AI optimization platform for the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries), and Equilibrium Energy (software for managing power grid volatility).
Grid and Power Operations
Grid operations companies are working to modernize the aging U.S. power grid by introducing advanced grid intelligence, alleviating congestion, and ensuring uptime. Within this space are transmission companies like Meter, which provides high-performance internet infrastructure for enterprises. There are also grid management companies like Gridware (AI-powered electrical fault detection), Rhizome (AI platform for modeling and mitigating climate-related risks to electrical utilities), and our portfolio companies Urbint (AI platform that identifies threats to workers and infrastructure) and Arcadia (AI-powered utility data).
Data Center Development & Operations
Data center development and operations companies are working on data center site selection, build profile, permitting, and interconnection tooling. Examples include Phaidra (an AI system for industrial optimization), CivilGrid (site selection software), Trunk Tools (an AI-powered construction project management), Ocient (data analysis for compute-intensive workloads), Claros (data center power delivery optimization), Fluix AI (AI copilot for data centers), and Waterplan (AI-powered water security and compliance).
AI Infrastructure
AI infrastructure companies are those building, supplying, or operating the physical and digital foundations required to train, deploy, and scale AI. The Salesforce Ventures team is focused on companies in this category, prioritizing sustainable solutions. Examples include Crusoe, which is building vertically integrated AI infrastructure with an eye towards sustainability, Panthalassa, building offshore data centers that run on hydro power, and Rune, which builds modular data centers that run on renewable energy.
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It’s no longer enough to optimize AI workloads — we need to optimize the infrastructure that powers them. We believe founders building the clean energy stack for the AI age will play a critical role in enabling the next wave of enterprise innovation.
We’ll be in New York for the Climate Capital Summit during Climate Week and look forward to meeting fellow investors and founders working at this intersection of AI and energy.
