CATL Capital, a subsidiary of battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology $3750 (-1.89%)has led a financing round of almost CNY 100 million (USD 14 million) for DaMao Technology, a Chinese start-up in the field of artificial intelligence in the energy sector.
The funds raised in the A+ funding round will be used for the research, development and commercialization of energy AI models, computing power and electricity consumption coordination platforms and related intelligent agents, Shanghai-based DaMao announced yesterday.
DaMao plans to create "virtual power plants" within data centers that intelligently pool distributed power resources to meet the huge energy demands of these hubs, and aims to achieve a 30 percent share of China's computing power coordination market within the next three years, the company said.
The rapid development of AI has led to a surge in demand for computing infrastructure, which is now a key factor in the growth of the industry.
China's data centers consumed 166 billion kilowatt hours last year, accounting for about 2 percent of the country's total electricity consumption, according to a report published by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in July.
DaMao, founded in 2021, aggregates 100 megawatts of electricity through its virtual power plants and powers AI data centers with a total capacity of 30,000 petaflops, the company said.
DaMao's technology is used by leading Chinese AI company SenseTime in its smart data center in Shanghai, where it reduces electricity costs by 6.5 percent through precise energy scheduling while significantly improving the self-balancing capabilities of the power grid, the company added.
DaMao has also partnered with state-owned energy companies China Energy Engineering and State Power Investment, as well as French company Schneider Electric.