NVIDIA and Emerald AI Join Leading Energy Companies to Pioneer Flexible AI Factories as Grid Assets

Collaboration Combines AI Factory Design, Energy Resources and Flexibility to Speed Time to Power and Support Grid Reliability

Mar. 23, 2026 at 11:03am

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NVIDIA and Emerald AI announced they are working with major energy companies including AES, Constellation, Invenergy, NextEra Energy, Nscale Energy & Power, and Vistra to power and advance a new class of AI factories that can connect to the grid faster, generate valuable AI tokens and intelligence, and operate as flexible energy assets to support the grid. The collaboration aims to enable AI factories to provide measurable relief back to the grid through the use of the NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI Factory reference design and Emerald AI's Conductor platform.

Why it matters

This collaboration demonstrates how companies across industries can come together to support AI innovation in the U.S. while building a more reliable power system. AI factories can help unlock up to 100 gigawatts of capacity across the U.S. power system by combining optimized infrastructure design with efficient use of existing assets and new-build generation, while flexing during limited periods of grid stress to reduce the need for broader grid expansion to support reliability.

The details

The DSX reference architecture can support flexible AI factories without co-located energy resources to achieve larger and faster power grid connections. Emerald AI's Conductor platform will orchestrate computational flexibility alongside onsite generation, batteries and other behind-the-meter resources to deliver precise, grid-responsive power flexibility while ensuring quality of service for AI compute tenants. This coordination helps operators meet power targets, protect priority workloads, shorten time on bridge power, and support larger and faster interconnections.

  • The companies intend to identify and advance project opportunities built using the Vera Rubin DSX reference design with DSX Flex to accelerate large-scale AI infrastructure deployment later this year.
  • The NVIDIA AI Factory Research Center in Virginia, planned as one of the world's first power-flexible AI factories with NVIDIA Vera Rubin infrastructure, is expected to deploy DSX Flex at commercial scale later this year.

The players

NVIDIA

An American technology company that designs graphics processing units (GPUs) for the gaming and professional markets, as well as system on a chip units (SoCs) for the mobile computing and automotive market.

Emerald AI

A company that provides a platform called Conductor to orchestrate computational flexibility alongside onsite generation, batteries and other behind-the-meter resources to deliver precise, grid-responsive power flexibility.

AES

A global energy company that provides sustainable energy solutions.

Constellation

A subsidiary of Exelon Corporation and one of the largest competitive retail suppliers of electricity and natural gas in the United States.

Invenergy

A privately held global developer and operator of sustainable energy solutions, including wind, solar, natural gas, and energy storage projects.

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What they’re saying

“AI factories are the engines of the intelligence era, and like any great engine, every system must be designed together — energy, compute, networking and cooling as one architecture.”

— Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA

“AI factories are too valuable to be treated as either passive loads or permanent islands. They produce tremendously valuable AI tokens and knowledge, and with DSX Flex, they can also provide measurable relief back to the grid.”

— Varun Sivaram, Founder and CEO of Emerald AI

“Grid flexibility will be key to addressing AI's unprecedented demand while supporting system reliability.”

— Andrés Gluski, CEO of AES

What’s next

The companies intend to identify and advance project opportunities built using the Vera Rubin DSX reference design with DSX Flex to accelerate large-scale AI infrastructure deployment, support larger and faster grid interconnections, unlock technology pathways for new generation builds, expand the economic benefits of AI and energy investment for local communities, strengthen U.S. energy leadership and enable broader AI deployment over time.

The takeaway

This collaboration demonstrates how companies across industries can come together to support AI innovation in the U.S. while building a more reliable power system. By pairing large AI loads with flexible operations, new energy generation capabilities and intelligent controls, this approach can help boost grid reliability and unlock the potential of AI factories to provide measurable relief back to the grid.