Ambrosia Energy CEO Ben Longmier and Bill Thayer, head of data center solutions at Bloom Energy, will sit down for a conversation titled “Where the AI infrastructure boom is creating winners” on the Smart Systems Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
TrendForce analysis indicates that large-scale AI data center (AIDC) deployments in 2026 are pushing energy storage from an optional add-on to critical infrastructure. North America urgently needs storage to secure 24/7 power given gas generation's 40-50% share and tight supply of large gas turbines; China has made compute-power coordination part of new infrastructure, making 4-8 hour long-duration storage standard for compute hubs. AIDC storage is deployed on both the data center side and the power generation side, and NVIDIA's 800V DC architecture white paper proposes facility-level and rack-level two-tier storage schemes.