NVIDIA, Emerald AI Partner With Major Utilities to Build Grid-Responsive AI Factories

NVIDIA and startup Emerald AI unveiled a partnership with AES, Constellation, Invenergy, NextEra Energy, Nscale Energy & Power and Vistra to develop “AI factories” that can scale faster and act as flexible grid assets. The effort, announced at CERAWeek, pairs NVIDIA’s new Vera Rubin DSX reference design and DSX Flex software with Emerald’s Conductor platform to modulate data-center power use and tap on-site generation and storage. The companies say the approach can speed interconnections, cut peak strain and potentially unlock up to 100 gigawatts of capacity on U.S. grids as AI demand surges. Pilot projects have demonstrated power flexibility at five commercial sites; a larger deployment is slated this year at an NVIDIA research center in Virginia. The utilities will evaluate co-located and grid-connected configurations aimed at bringing AI load online sooner while supporting reliability, reflecting a broader pivot to treat energy-hungry compute campuses as active participants in grid operations rather than passive loads.

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