Reflecting on the insights shared during the panel discussions, a critical consensus emerged: AI adoption across Europe is accelerating, yet execution is struggling to keep pace. Permitting timelines can stretch beyond two years, grid infrastructure is aging, and capital markets remain cautious. In contrast, the U.S. has moved more decisively by treating AI infrastructure as strategic and enabling faster action across key bottlenecks.
There is also a funding paradox. Investors often require up to 80% pre-leasing before backing a new data center, despite rapidly growing demand. Open orders at leading AI cloud providers have surged from $23 billion to $66 billion in just nine months, underlining the scale and urgency of the opportunity.
Our portfolio companies Aikido Technologies and Active Surfaces took the stage during the Tech Talks session “Five companies reshaping energy, carbon, land and industrial infrastructure.”
Aikido Technologies, led by CEO Sam Kanner, is transforming how digital infrastructure meets energy through clean-powered, floating marine data centers that expand computing capacity beyond land limits. The company is also advancing offshore floating wind platforms that support the next generation of sustainable infrastructure.
Active Surfaces, led by CEO Shiv Bhakta, develops ultra-light, flexible solar panels and industrial materials that actively cut emissions, helping make manufacturing greener and more efficient.
The summit also featured the Sabanci Climate Ventures & Future Energy Ventures startup showcase, bringing together four startups with different perspectives on the energy transition: Aikido Technologies, Active Surfaces, Reel, which simplifies how companies buy and manage renewable electricity, and Chloris Geospatial, which uses satellite data and AI to measure and verify forest carbon.
Another highlight came from our portfolio company Noon Energy, which advanced to the superfinal within Energy Tech Challengers as the winner of the Energy for AI category, alongside Tokamak Energy in Climate Hardware X. Their success reflects the growing importance of solutions at the intersection of energy and compute.
For us, Energy Tech Summit was also a valuable opportunity to connect with founders, investors and ecosystem partners who are shaping the future of energy across the U.S. and Europe. The energy transition is being built by hardware innovators who dare to rethink industrial infrastructure, and we are proud to back ambitious founders who are helping turn this transformation into reality.
