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The Next Billion-Dollar Startup Behind An Underground Power Grid Built For The AI Revolution
Posted
July 28, 2026
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July 28, 2026
550
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2:39
22:05Now PlayingForbes senior editor Chris Hellman sits down with Anton Anton Troynikov, CEO and co-founder of American Terawatt, to discuss the hidden energy crisis behind the AI boom. Because the legacy U.S. power grid was never designed to add a gigawatt of demand at once, everyday consumers are currently footing the bill for the massive wire and transformer upgrades required by new tech facilities.
To solve this, American Terawatt—backed by Founders Fund and Altimeter—is proposing a bold alternative: building a brand new, underground high-voltage direct current (DC) transmission network specifically for heavy industrial loads. By taking these massive data centers off the legacy grid, the startup aims to stop consumer power bills from rising while simultaneously unblocking America's energy bottleneck.
Check out the full Forbes Next BillionDollar Startups 2026 list here
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