Data center hardware maker Rune closed a $40M round led by Spark Capital and debuted its first product.
RELIC, short for Renewable Energy Linked Intelligent Compute, is a computing module built to be installed on the premises of solar farms. Rune says it cuts the auxiliary infrastructure costs of a large AI data center by 85%.
Two mechanisms get it there. First, RELIC modules run next to the panels that power them, removing the need for long-haul power transmission lines – hardware OpenAI expects to spend $4.2B on for its Ohio buildout. Second, because solar farms produce direct current and the modules consume it directly, the systems skip the DC-to-AC conversion that transformers perform and the AC-to-DC conversion that data centers usually reverse.
Each module ships with up to 1,024 graphics cards, cooling equipment and custom power management. Rune also claims RELIC can soak up generation capacity that utilities curtail when solar supply exceeds demand.
CEO William Layden put the pitch simply: “Every solar plant is a latent data center. The power is already there, sitting idle while AI labs wait years for grid connections that may never come.”
The company is incorporated as Liitto Technology. Its wager is that grid interconnection delays, not chip supply, become the binding constraint on AI capacity.
