Silicon Valley legend joins Stanford team solving AI’s biggest bottleneck: power
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#AI—GridCARE, the company accelerating time-to-power for modern AI Factories, today announced that Ram Shriram has joined its Board of Directors. A founding board member of Google and one of Silicon Valley’s most influential technology investors, Shriram brings decades of experience scaling category-defining platforms during major industry transitions.
“I’ve always invested in exceptional entrepreneurs and innovators solving real, consequential problems,” said Shriram. “The AI revolution is being throttled by a single constraint: power. GridCARE is tackling a foundational challenge for the AI economy, and its team brings unmatched depth across power systems and AI to solve it at the scale and urgency the moment demands.”
“From recognizing Google’s potential at its inception to helping shape some of the most iconic technology companies of our era, Ram’s track record speaks for itself,” said Amit Narayan, Founder and CEO of GridCARE. “His experience scaling category-defining platforms and building enduring companies will be invaluable as we meet the unprecedented demand for AI infrastructure.”
A Legendary Track Record in Technology Investing
Ram Shriram’s investment acumen has shaped the modern technology landscape. In 1998, Shriram was among the first outside investors in Google, providing critical early-stage capital and strategic guidance that helped transform a Stanford research project into a global technology giant. He has served on Google’s board since its founding and continues today as a board member of Alphabet Inc.
Before his legendary Google investment, Shriram served as Vice President at Netscape during the dawn of the internet age and later as Vice President of Business Development at Amazon.com under Jeff Bezos. In 2000, he founded Sherpalo Ventures, an early-stage venture firm with a portfolio that includes category leaders such as Notion, Skyroot, and Gusto.
“The pace of AI and cloud growth demands new thinking about how we power the digital economy,” said Christian Belady, a GridCARE advisor, former Vice President of Data Center R&D at Microsoft, and creator of the industry-standard PUE metric. “GridCARE’s approach is exactly what the industry needs: making better use of existing infrastructure to accelerate time-to-power while keeping costs down for everyone. Ram Shriram joining the board validates what those of us in the data center world already know: this team is building something essential.”
GridCARE: Rapid Momentum in AI Infrastructure
Shriram’s appointment follows a strong year of execution and growth for GridCARE. The company emerged from stealth in May 2025 as the first startup born out of the Stanford Sustainability Accelerator and closed a highly oversubscribed $13.5 million seed financing round led by Xora, a deep-tech venture capital firm backed by Temasek.
GridCARE accelerates deployment of AI Factories by reducing data centers’ time-to-power from 7+ years to under 12 months. The company estimates it can activate over 100 gigawatts of capacity across the U.S. power grid — capacity that has been overlooked by traditional grid planning methods but is immediately actionable for AI infrastructure deployment. The company has rapidly secured partnerships with major utilities, including Pacific Gas & Electric and Portland General Electric. It is currently working with over a dozen hyperscalers, data centers, and powered land developers.
GridCARE has already demonstrated the impact of its platform, unlocking 400 megawatts of capacity in Hillsboro, Oregon, one of the most sought-after locations for AI data centers in the United States. The company’s recently published white paper details how AI Factories can help reduce electricity costs for all ratepayers by optimizing grid utilization and enabling more efficient infrastructure deployment.
“Ram Shriram understands how to build companies that matter, and this one matters,” said Mohsen Moazami, GridCARE advisor and former Office of the CEO/President of Groq (asset acquired by Nvidia). “GridCARE makes better use of our existing infrastructure — that is good for AI, good for utilities, and good for every consumer. ”
World-Class Team
GridCARE brings together a founding technical team from Stanford, including Ram Rajagopal, a Stanford Professor and leading researcher in AI for power systems; Liang Min, Executive Director of Stanford’s Bits & Watts initiative; and Arun Majumdar, Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and former Vice President of Energy at Google. This technical foundation is complemented by seasoned operators, including Alaina Bookstein (Head of Sales and Partnerships, former AWS Global Head of Strategic Business Development), Jessica Hogle (Head of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs, former PG&E and TVA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs), and Shaneez Mohinani (Head of Strategy & Operations, former Goldman Sachs). Amit Narayan, a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits, leads the company. He previously founded Berkeley Design Automation (acquired by Mentor Graphics/Siemens) and AutoGrid (acquired by Schneider Electric), scaling both into category-defining companies.
GridCARE’s investor roster reflects the company’s position at the nexus of AI infrastructure and climate technology. In addition to lead investor Xora (backed by Temasek), the company has secured investments from Aina Climate AI Ventures, Overture Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, WovenEarth, Acclimate Ventures, Clearvision, Clocktower Ventures, and Sherpalo Ventures. The round also attracted prominent technology and energy leaders, including Tom Steyer, Gokul Rajaram, Bill Younger, Felix Zhang, Balaji Prabhakar, and Tarun Raisoni, reinforcing the company’s potential to reshape AI infrastructure.
About GridCARE
GridCARE delivers Speed-to-Power for AI data centers. Our physics-based AI platform identifies and activates near-term capacity on today’s grid, enabling data centers to energize faster while helping utilities grow without compromising reliability or affordability.
Founded at Stanford’s Doerr School and backed by leading AI and energy investors, GridCARE strengthens U.S. AI competitiveness by accelerating access to power at scale. To date, the GridCARE platform has created more than $10 billion in economic value for data center developers by bringing hundreds of megawatts online years ahead of schedule.
Learn more at gridcare.ai.
Contacts
GridCARE
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