Energy, not compute, is quickly turning into the limiting think about AI information middle growth. This transformation led Peak XV Companions to again C2i Semiconductors, an Indian startup constructing plug-and-play system-level energy options designed to cut back power losses and enhance the economics of large-scale AI infrastructure.
C2i (brief for Management Transformation and Intelligence) has raised $15 million in a Collection A spherical led by Peak XV Companions with participation from Yali Deeptech and TDK Ventures, bringing the two-year-old startup’s complete funding to $19 million.
This funding comes as information middle power demand accelerates around the globe. Knowledge middle energy consumption is predicted to almost triple by 2035, in accordance with a December 2025 report from BloombergNEF, whereas Goldman Sachs Analysis estimates information middle energy demand may soar 175% from 2023 ranges by 2030, the equal of including one other prime 10 power-consuming nation.
A lot of that load comes not from energy era, however from environment friendly conversion inside the information middle, the place high-voltage energy have to be stepped down 1000’s of occasions earlier than reaching the GPU. Preetam Taderathy, co-founder and CTO of C2i, mentioned in an interview that this course of presently wastes about 15-20% of power.
“Voltages that was 400 volts are already shifting to 800 volts and can most likely go even larger,” Tadesh instructed TechCrunch.
Based in 2024 by former Texas Devices energy executives Ram Ananth, Vikram Gakar, Pritam Tadesh, and Dattatreya Suryanarayana, together with Harsha S.B. and Muthusbramanian N.V., C2i is redesigning energy supply as a single plug-and-play “grid-to-GPU” system that spans from the information middle bus to the processor itself.
C2i estimates that by treating energy conversion, management, and packaging as an built-in platform, end-to-end losses may be lowered by roughly 10% (roughly 100 kilowatts saved for each megawatt consumed), with ripple results on cooling prices, GPU utilization, and general information middle economics.
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“All of this interprets on to complete price of possession, income and profitability,” says Tadesh.
For Peak XV Companions (separated from Sequoia Capital in 2023), the enchantment lies in how energy prices form the economics of large-scale AI infrastructure. Rajan Anandan, the enterprise’s managing director, instructed TechCrunch that after the upfront funding in servers and gear, power prices make up the majority of a knowledge middle’s ongoing bills, so even incremental effectivity features may be very worthwhile.
“If you happen to can cut back power prices by 10 to 30 p.c, that is an enormous quantity,” Anandan mentioned. “You are speaking tens of billions of {dollars}.”
The declare can be verified quickly. C2i expects the primary two silicon designs to return from manufacturing between April and June, Tadesh mentioned, after which plans to validate efficiency with information middle operators and hyperscalers who’ve requested to evaluate their information.
The Bangalore-based startup has assembled a workforce of round 65 engineers and is organising customer-facing operations within the US and Taiwan in preparation for preliminary implementation.
Energy supply is among the most entrenched components of the information middle stack, lengthy dominated by massive incumbents with deep stability sheets and lengthy certification cycles. Whereas many startups concentrate on bettering particular person elements, end-to-end redesign of energy supply requires simultaneous alignment of silicon, packaging, and system structure. It is a capital-intensive method that few startups strive, and it takes years to reveal in manufacturing.
The true challenge now could be execution, Anandan mentioned, noting that every one startups face know-how, market and workforce dangers when betting on how the business will evolve. For C2i, the suggestions loop have to be comparatively brief, he mentioned. “We’ll know inside the subsequent six months,” Anandan mentioned, pointing to approaching silicon and early buyer validation as moments when the thesis can be put to the check.
The wager displays how India’s semiconductor design ecosystem has matured lately.
“The way in which you take a look at semiconductors in India is like e-commerce in 2008,” Anandan mentioned. “It is just the start.”
He famous that the depth of engineering expertise, with an growing proportion of worldwide chip designers based mostly in India, and government-backed design-related incentives that decrease tape-out prices and dangers, make it more and more viable for startups to construct globally aggressive semiconductor merchandise from India somewhat than working solely as captive design facilities.
Whether or not these situations will translate right into a globally aggressive product will turn into clearer within the coming months as C2i begins validating system-level energy options with clients.
