NVIDIA and Emerald AI Partner with Energy Companies to Accelerate AI Factory Design and Grid Reliability
HOUSTON, March 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — At CERAWeek 2026, NVIDIA and Emerald AI have joined forces with AES, Constellation, Invenergy, NextEra Energy, Nscale Energy & Power, and Vistra to enhance a new generation of AI factories that connect to the grid swiftly, produce valuable AI tokens and intelligence, and operate as flexible energy assets supporting grid reliability.
By collaborating with technology, energy, and infrastructure leaders, this partnership showcases how companies from various sectors can unite to promote AI innovation in the United States while strengthening the nation’s power system.
These cutting-edge AI factories will utilize the NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI Factory reference design, incorporating the DSX Flex software library for seamless connection to power-grid services.
To expedite deployment, the factories can initially rely on co-located energy generation and storage to facilitate hybrid AI operations. Subsequently, these resources can be leveraged to supply the grid flexibly, hasten AI factory interconnection, and bolster the overall power system. This strategy accelerates the integration of AI capacity while delivering enhanced value to customers and communities.
The DSX reference architecture also supports flexible AI factories without co-located energy resources, enabling quicker and larger power grid connections.
Emerald AI’s Conductor platform will coordinate computational flexibility alongside onsite generation, batteries, and other resources to deliver precise, grid-responsive power flexibility. This orchestration ensures quality of service for AI compute tenants, aids in meeting power targets, expedites interconnections, and reduces infrastructure costs by optimizing resource utilization.
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s founder and CEO, emphasized the importance of designing integrated systems for AI factories to maximize performance, efficiency, and grid responsiveness. Varun Sivaram, Emerald AI’s founder and CEO, highlighted the significant value AI factories generate and underscored the pivotal role of DSX Flex in supporting the grid.
Enhancing Grid Strength with AI Factories
Current electric systems are designed to meet peak demand but remain underutilized for most of the day. Power-flexible AI factories can unlock up to 100 gigawatts of capacity across the U.S. power system by optimizing infrastructure design, utilizing existing assets efficiently, and flexing during periods of grid stress to reduce the need for extensive grid expansion.
AI factories convert electricity into AI tokens, models, and intelligence, representing some of the most valuable outputs of modern infrastructure. Meeting this potential requires innovation in computing and energy infrastructure planning, construction, and operation.
Several gigawatt-scale AI projects are turning to co-located generation and storage to expedite deployment, as traditional interconnection timelines may not align with the rapid pace of AI investment. However, isolating generation and storage from the grid permanently can lead to underutilization, increased costs, and limited grid support capabilities.
AES, Constellation, Invenergy, NextEra Energy, Nscale Energy & Power, and Vistra are dedicated to developing the necessary energy generation capabilities to meet surging demand and ensure grid reliability.
These companies will collaborate on optimized generation applications to power AI factories constructed using NVIDIA and Emerald AI’s architecture. By combining large AI loads with flexible operations, new energy generation capabilities, and intelligent controls, this approach can enhance grid reliability.
Flexible AI factories connected to the grid from the outset can also benefit from co-located energy resources if available.
Andrés Gluski, AES’s CEO, emphasized the importance of grid flexibility in addressing AI’s growing demand while maintaining system reliability. Joe Dominguez, Constellation’s president and CEO, highlighted the potential of data centers, including power-flexible AI factories, to unlock energy infrastructure investments efficiently.
Michael Polsky, Invenergy’s founder and CEO, emphasized the innovative approach of combining near-term generation solutions with flexible operations to meet energy needs quickly and enhance system reliability. John Ketchum, NextEra Energy’s chairman, president, and CEO, stressed the importance of integrating new demand and generation resources into the grid economically and efficiently.
Daniel Shapiro, Nscale Energy & Power’s chief power and energy officer, highlighted the role of interconnected power assets in supporting grid stability and meeting high-demand periods effectively. Jim Burke, Vistra’s president and CEO, underscored the benefits of AI factories with flexible power use in optimizing grid infrastructure utilization.
In the past year, Emerald AI and NVIDIA conducted AI power flexibility trials at five commercial data centers worldwide. The deployment of DSX Flex at the NVIDIA AI Factory Research Center in Virginia later this year will mark a significant step towards creating power-flexible AI factories.
The companies aim to identify and advance project opportunities using the Vera Rubin DSX reference design with DSX Flex to expedite large-scale AI infrastructure deployment, support rapid grid interconnections, facilitate new generation builds, expand economic benefits, strengthen U.S. energy leadership, and promote broader AI deployment.
By collaborating with energy companies and technology leaders, NVIDIA and Emerald AI are driving innovation in AI factory design and grid reliability, paving the way for a smarter, more efficient energy future.
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