Voxel Energy is building data centers powered by solar generation paired with repurposed battery storage, and it sits in Robinhood Ventures Fund II’s energy cohort. The idea is to give AI workloads power that does not depend on grid availability, pairing generation with on-site storage in a single package rather than relying on utilities to deliver capacity on time. The pitch is straightforward: AI workloads need power on site, and a solar-plus-storage data center can deliver it without waiting on transmission upgrades.
Repurposed batteries, second-life packs that would otherwise be recycled, cut the cost of storage and give the company a margin advantage over competitors buying new cells. Solar plus storage also matches data center load patterns better than intermittent generation alone, smoothing output across the day and into the evening when AI workloads keep running. The model attacks two problems at once: the grid interconnection backlog that slows new data centers, and the waste stream of retired EV batteries, which is growing as early electric cars reach end of life. The approach also insulates operators from price swings on the wholesale power market, since generation and storage are both on site.
The startup is funded through the fund’s $250K SAFE program and is one of roughly 80 holdings. The fund’s shares begin trading on the NYSE on August 13 at $25 apiece, with Voxel Energy part of a cohort that also includes compact reactor developer Apollo Atomics. The two companies approach the same power problem from different sides, and together they give the fund exposure to both generation and storage.
