Amperesand $80M Series A backs MV SST to power AI grids

Amperesand has closed an $80 million Series A round aimed at commercialising its medium‑voltage solid‑state transformer (MV SST) for hyperscale AI data centres and other critical power users. The financing is co-led by Walden Catalyst Ventures and Temasek, and brings a broad syndicate including Industry Ventures, Acclimate Ventures, SG Growth Capital, Xora Innovation, Material Impact, TDK Ventures and Foothill Ventures.

The company plans to use the capital to accelerate manufacturing and field deployments, targeting 30MW of commercial MV SST systems for delivery in 2026. Amperesand says the units are built for the intense density and uptime demands of AI training and inference facilities, offering a smaller footprint and integrated controls to shave installation time and civil works compared with legacy equipment.

Lead times for conventional transformers, switchgear and UPS equipment have ballooned — often ranging from a year to two — while hyperscalers push for rapid rack rollouts and tighter time-to-power. Amperesand’s platform bundles power electronics, software controls and cybersecurity into a compact unit the company says can reduce electrical footprint by more than 80%, halve installation labour, and accelerate commissioning by up to 10x.

Brian Dow, CEO and co-founder of Amperesand, framed the product as a response to both commercial and national‑security priorities: “We’ve designed a medium‑voltage source that can operate on‑ or off‑grid with regionally controlled software and supply chains,” he said, adding that local manufacturing and cyber‑secure controls were central to customers’ procurement needs.

The company traces its technology roots to an eight‑year research programme and a spin‑out from Nanyang Technological University, and was incubated by Xora Innovation. It completed Generation 2 full‑power and bidirectional testing before expanding engineering and production capabilities in the United States (San Francisco and Reno) and Singapore. Phil Inagaki, Managing Partner & CIO at Xora Innovation, highlighted the pace of productisation and the company’s readiness for market deployments with the new funding.

Amperesand already has pilot agreements for 2026 including a mission‑critical charging pilot at the Port of Singapore with PSA International, and multiple hyperscaler pilots aimed at compressing GPU ramp timelines. Investors and executives say the round positions the company to scale manufacturing and global deployments while advancing a new category of power infrastructure for data centres and electrified critical assets.