Rune raises $40M to power AI compute infrastructure using stranded solar energy in grid-free data centers.
AI & Agents ·
Rune, an AI compute infrastructure company, has raised $40 million in a Series A round led by Spark Capital to deploy modular data centers powered by stranded solar energy. The company's RELIC modules—8-by-8-foot units containing servers, cooling systems, and custom power electronics—connect directly to solar farms without requiring grid connection and can be operational in under 60 minutes. A facility in southwest Texas is already live at a 200-megawatt solar site.
The technology addresses inefficiency in solar generation by capturing power that would otherwise be lost. Solar plants currently waste roughly 20 percent of their output, with California's grid alone discarding approximately 3.5 million megawatt-hours of solar energy in 2025. Rune's approach uses direct current conversion to eliminate the need for traditional transformers, reducing supply chain complexity while bypassing grid interconnection delays, permitting requirements, and community permitting obstacles. CEO William Layden framed the advantage as speed: deploying compute infrastructure using existing capacity rather than waiting years for new power infrastructure to be built.
The company's cofounder and CTO is Varun Palivela. The feasibility of replicating the model across solar facilities nationwide remains to be demonstrated at scale, and long-term performance data from the live Texas deployment is not yet available.