SE Ventures AI investments target power, data centers and robotics
Schneider Electric’s $1 billion venture arm says AI demand is pushing venture capital deeper into energy, grid and industrial automation startups.
By Jordan Bell · Startups & Deals Reporter
· 3 min read
SE Ventures AI investments are increasingly aimed at the physical bottlenecks behind artificial intelligence: electricity, data centers, industrial automation and robotics. For retail investors tracking the AI trade, the signal is that spending is spreading beyond chips and software into the infrastructure needed to run those systems.
Schneider Electric, the energy management and automation company, backs startups through its $1 billion venture arm, SE Ventures. Amit Chaturvedy, SE Ventures’ global head and managing partner, told Crunchbase News that AI has made energy and industrial capacity a central investment theme.
Chaturvedy joined SE Ventures in 2022 after leading corporate investing at Cisco. He said the firm was created to study where markets are going and invest around that view. Its current focus spans AI infrastructure, grid resilience, robotics and industrial AI, with portfolio companies including Together AI, Hammerhead AI, Skild AI and Axion.
What is SE Ventures investing in for AI?
Chaturvedy described three main areas. The first is AI infrastructure, including systems used to train models and run inference, the process of using a trained model to generate answers or outputs. SE Ventures is an investor in Together AI, which Chaturvedy cited as an example of that market.
He also pointed to data center efficiency as a future opportunity. SE Ventures has backed Hammerhead AI, which focuses on that problem. Chaturvedy said efficiency may become more urgent after the current capital spending cycle for new data centers slows.
The second area is the electric grid. Chaturvedy said AI adds a new layer of demand on top of existing pressure from electrification, including electric vehicles. More power generation can help, but startups that improve grid resilience are also an investment target for SE Ventures, according to his comments.
The third area is industrial AI. Chaturvedy said robotics could change as general-purpose AI models let the same hardware perform more varied tasks. He cited Skild AI as a portfolio company working at the intersection of robotics and AI.
SE Ventures is also backing AI tools for field operations and manufacturing. Chaturvedy named Axion, which he said captures warranty information, analyzes it and sends findings back to design engineers at large companies.
Why energy has become part of the AI trade
AI models consume electricity when they train and when they generate output. Chaturvedy framed part of the cost challenge around tokens, the units of text or data that AI systems process. Producing and using fewer tokens can lower computing and power costs, he said.
Beyond software optimization, he said data centers can manage demand by shifting inference to lower-cost electricity periods and improving cooling systems. Over a longer period, he pointed to new generation capacity, especially renewables, and battery energy storage systems, known as BESS, as areas SE Ventures watches closely.
The firm’s connection to Schneider Electric is part of its model. Around 80% of SE Ventures portfolio companies have some form of commercial relationship with a Schneider Electric business unit, most often as partners serving Schneider customers, according to Crunchbase News. The firm often takes board roles and works with startups after investing.
SE Ventures counts eight unicorns in its portfolio and has recorded 12 exits, according to Crunchbase News. Its most recent exit cited was Fabric8Labs, a 3D metal printing technology company acquired by Tokyo-based electronics manufacturer TDK Corp.
Chaturvedy also tied AI to reindustrialization in the U.S. and Europe. He said data centers are already showing the shift because demand is urgent and capital is available. Over the next three to 10 years, he expects more new projects to be designed from the start around robotics and industrial automation.
For investors, the takeaway is less about one startup and more about where AI spending may show up next. SE Ventures is betting that the AI buildout will require new hardware, power systems and factory technology, not only larger models and more cloud software.
This story draws on original reporting from Crunchbase News.
