Energy Vault is expanding into infrastructure for artificial intelligence.
Earlier this week, the energy storage company announced it has entered into an agreement with Peak Energy to develop a platform designed specifically for AI data center operators. The platform will use Peak Energy’s sodium-ion batteries and Energy Vault’s software; as part of the agreement, the former will supply 1.5 gigawatt-hours of sodium-ion battery systems to the latter starting this year.
Additionally, Energy Vault announced today that it is planning a phased deployment of Crusoe’s SPARK modular data centers at one of its grid-connected sites in Snyder, Texas. This expands on a previously announced collaboration with the data center developer.
The announcements mark a strategic expansion towards AI infrastructure for Energy Vault, which has been on an at times troubled journey from gravity storage proponent to a more standard energy storage developer ever since it went public via SPAC in early 2022. The company has been buoyed by broader market tailwinds for energy storage; load growth and the AI data center boom have contributed to an unexpectedly good year for both novel and proven forms of storage.
Marco Terruzzin, chief revenue officer at Energy Vault, told Latitude Media in an email that the AI data center market is changing the urgency of power requirements across the energy sector.
“It is one of the most important structural demand drivers we have ever seen,” he said, adding that, for storage companies like Energy Vault, the AI data center market presents a new value proposition. “We are moving from selling a one-time hardware product to providing critical power-as-a-service. In this model — where we own and operate the asset — the total contract value per megawatt can be up to 20X higher than a traditional grid-tied BESS hardware sale.”
Sodium-ion for data centers?
While in the past few years, Energy Vault has dedicated itself for the most part to lithium-ion storage solutions, Terruzzin said the company has always been “technology-agnostic.” And in his view, sodium-ion — which has long been a proven technology but has never had widespread uptake in the Western world because of its low energy density — is well-suited to large-scale stationary storage applications and AI data centers.
“AI infrastructure is introducing a fundamentally different power profile — highly volatile, fast-ramping, and concentrated at gigawatt scale,” Terruzzin said. “Sodium-ion is particularly well suited to stationary, high-cycle applications like AI data centers because it offers strong thermal stability, a non-flammable chemistry profile, and cost advantages driven by abundant materials and domestic supply chains.”
For more on the case for sodium-ion, listen to this episode of the Catalyst podcast:
Sodium-ion batteries rely on abundant materials like salt, which are available globally. And Peak Energy, which is the leader of a handful of companies looking to commercialize sodium-ion in the U.S., develops its product so that it qualifies for domestic tax credits and is mostly insulated from incoming “foreign entity of concern” restrictions.
Peak Energy’s agreement with Energy Vault is the first in which the company explicitly targets data center applications, and a potentially important step for the commercialization of sodium-ion in the U.S. In September 2025, just as Peak Energy was announcing it had deployed its first grid-scale sodium-ion battery system, competitor Natron Energy shut down and halted plans to build a $1.4 billion gigafactory. It was an alarming turn for the industry, and came in the wake of a 70% crash in lithium prices, which made the dominant lithium-ion batteries virtually impossible for sodium-ion to beat on price. Lithium prices have since stabilized, potentially creating an opening for deals like Energy Vault and Peak Energy’s.
Transition-AI 2026, Latitude Media’s flagship event at the center of the AI-energy infrastructure buildout, will convene developers, utilities, regulators, hyperscalers, and capital providers to move towards coordinated, sustainable solutions for AI-driven demand. Register now to secure the lowest rates and join us in San Francisco April 13-14.
