As Ai Data Centers Hit Power Limits, Peak Xv Backs Indian Startup C2i To Fix The Bottleneck - Beritaja

Power, alternatively than compute, is accelerated becoming the limiting facet successful scaling AI information centers. That displacement has prompted Peak XV Partners to backmost C2i Semiconductors, an Indian startup building plug-and-play, system-level powerfulness solutions designed to trim power losses and amended the economics of large-scale AI infrastructure.

C2i (which stands for power conversion and intelligence) has raised $15 cardinal successful a Series A information led by Peak XV Partners, pinch information from Yali Deeptech and TDK Ventures, bringing the two-year-old startup’s full backing to $19 million.

The finance comes arsenic data-center power request accelerates worldwide. Electricity depletion from information centers is projected to about triple by 2035, per a December 2025 study from BloombergNEF, while Goldman Sachs Research estimates data-center powerfulness request could surge 175% by 2030 from 2023 levels — the balanced of adding different top-10 power-consuming country.

Much of that strain comes not from generating energy but from converting it efficiently wrong information centers, wherever high-voltage powerfulness must beryllium stepped down thousands of times earlier it reaches GPUs. This process presently wastes about 15% to 20% of energy, C2i’s co-founder and CTO Preetam Tadeparthy said successful an interview.

“What utilized to beryllium 400 volts has already moved to 800 volts, and will apt spell higher,” Tadeparthy told TechCrunch.

Founded successful 2024 by erstwhile Texas Instruments powerfulness executives Ram Anant, Vikram Gakhar, Preetam Tadeparthy, and Dattatreya Suryanarayana, on pinch Harsha S. B and Muthusubramanian N. V, C2i is redesigning powerfulness transportation arsenic a single, plug-and-play “grid-to-GPU” strategy spanning the data-center autobus to the processor itself.

C2i co-founders Vikram Gakhar, Preetam Tadeparthy, Ram Anant, and Dattatreya Suryanarayana (Left to right)Image Credits:C2i

By treating powerfulness conversion, power and packaging arsenic an integrated platform, C2i estimates it could trim end-to-end losses by about 10% — about 100 kilowatts saved for each megawatt consumed — pinch knock-on effects for cooling costs, GPU utilisation and wide data-center economics.

“All that translates straight to full costs of ownership, revenue, and profitability,” Tadeparthy said.

For Peak XV Partners (which split from Sequoia Capital successful 2023), the attraction lies successful really powerfulness costs style the economics of AI infrastructure astatine scale. Rajan Anandan, the task firm’s managing director, told TechCrunch that aft the upfront superior finance successful servers and facilities, power costs go the ascendant ongoing disbursal for information centers, making moreover incremental ratio gains highly valuable.

“If you could trim power costs by, telephone it, 10 to 30%, that’s for illustration a immense number,” Anandan said. “You’re talking about tens of billions of dollars.”

The claims will beryllium tested quickly. C2i expects its first 2 silicon designs to return from fabrication betwixt April and June, aft which the startup plans to validate capacity pinch data-center operators and hyperscalers that person asked to reappraisal the data, according to Tadeparthy.

The Bengaluru-based startup has built a squad of about 65 engineers and is mounting up customer-facing operations successful the U.S. and Taiwan arsenic it prepares for early deployments.

Power transportation is 1 of the about entrenched parts of the data-center stack, agelong dominated by ample incumbents pinch heavy equilibrium sheets and years-long qualification cycles. While galore newer companies attraction connected improving individual components, redesigning powerfulness transportation end-to-end requires coordinating silicon, packaging, and strategy architecture simultaneously — a capital-intensive attack that fewer startups effort and 1 that could return years to beryllium successful accumulation environments.

Anandan said the existent mobility now is execution, noting that each startups look technology, market, and squad risks erstwhile betting connected really industries evolve. In C2i’s case, he said, the feedback loop should beryllium comparatively short. “We’ll cognize successful the adjacent six months,” said Anandan, pointing to upcoming silicon and early customer validation arsenic the infinitesimal erstwhile the thesis will beryllium tested.

The stake besides reflects really India’s semiconductor creation ecosystem has matured successful caller years.

“The measurement you should look astatine semiconductors successful India is, this is for illustration 2008 e-commerce,” said Anandan. “It’s conscionable getting started.”

He pointed to the extent of engineering talent — pinch a increasing stock of world spot designers based successful the state — alongside government-backed design-linked incentives that person lowered the costs and consequence of tape-outs, making it progressively viable for startups to build globally competitory semiconductor products from India alternatively than run only arsenic captive creation centers.

Whether those conditions construe into a globally competitory merchandise will go clearer complete the coming months, arsenic C2i originates validating its system-level powerfulness solutions pinch customers.