The Need for Fast, Cheap, Reliable Energy — Why We Invested in Antora

For the first time in decades, U.S. energy demand is skyrocketing, driven by large industrial loads like data centers that each consume as much power as a city. Utilities that spent twenty years managing flat demand are now fielding requests for firm power they can’t serve on the timelines their customers need.

The problem isn’t a lack of new generation. Solar is cheap and abundant, making it the fastest-growing energy source globally. But its intermittency means data centers, factories, and grid operators can’t rely on it alone. The energy we need to meet this moment already exists. It’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Short-duration lithium-ion batteries (1–8 hours of storage) can smooth out some of that intermittency. But meeting 24/7 demand from data centers, factories, and cities requires something different: a way to turn low-cost, surplus power into around-the-clock energy.

Antora Has Built a Breakthrough Solution

Antora delivers 24/7 energy at the speed and scale required to meet this surging demand. Antora’s thermal batteries charge with low-cost electricity, store it as heat in earth-abundant materials, and deliver it back as industrial heat or firm power. The company has already deployed one of the largest battery systems on the planet, and its U.S. gigafactory is already manufacturing gigawatt-hours of batteries.

Antora’s technology is not winning by accident. Antora’s founding team designed the technology from first principles, building its product around what is perhaps the best energy storage material available: solid carbon. Carbon is inexpensive, safe, readily accessible, and highly energy-dense, enabling batteries that can store energy for days and deliver the cheapest firm energy on the planet.

The design is elegantly simple, though making it work at commercial scale required significant innovations in heat transfer, insulation, and power delivery.

These technical advantages allow the company to factory-build containerized batteries that store energy at a fraction of the cost of conventional batteries and ship them by the thousands to quickly deliver firm energy to customers. The result is energy storage that is cheaper, faster to deploy, and easier to scale than anything else on the market.

A Generational Opportunity to Deliver Speed-to-Power

Earlier this year, Antora turned on a major commercial project with POET, the world’s largest biofuels producer, at POET’s bioethanol plant in Big Stone City, South Dakota. And this wasn’t your typical “first-of-a-kind” project. At 5 GWh, this is one of the biggest battery installations in the world! Delivered on time (deployed in under a year), on budget, and on spec.

Previously, POET relied on a nearby coal plant to generate process steam at the plant. Today, Antora is delivering 24/7 zero-emission energy to POET. The project significantly expands energy supply to the plant, enabling it to increase production and boost demand for grain from local farmers.

The same product now delivering energy in South Dakota can provide firm power where it’s needed most. Energy has become the binding constraint on AI infrastructure, and hyperscalers are seeking solutions that can rapidly deliver cost-effective baseload power at massive scale. So it’s no surprise that Antora’s success at Big Stone has led to a surge of interest from players looking to get data centers online fast. Antora is ready to meet that demand today.

Our Investment Thesis

1. Antora is a proven solution today, able to deliver GWs of energy at the exact moment AI data centers and grid operators are desperate for it. They have earned this opportunity with their execution to date.
2. As Antora scales into the 2030s, Antora batteries paired with renewables will deliver the cheapest baseload power globally for industry and AI infrastructure. This is a differentiated product serving one of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world.
3. This founding team is the right one to deliver on this ambitious vision. Andrew, Justin, and David are truly exceptional founders: they are deeply technical yet commercial-savvy, and rigorous first-principles thinkers.

We are thrilled to partner with them, the rest of the Antora team, and the other investors to build a generational company.

Author: Jake Tauscher, Brook Porter