Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Names 21 Startups Betting on a Power Demand Surge

Bill Gates's investment firm Breakthrough Energy has picked 21 startups it believes will help meet a coming surge in electricity demand, according to TechCrunch, which reported on the firm's outlook for the industry.

TechCrunch reported that an investor at the firm described data center electricity use as only a 10% increase against demand that has stayed largely flat over the past three decades. That growth was framed as an early warning sign of far bigger changes still to come.

The same investor told TechCrunch that fully electrifying homes, vehicles and industry nationwide would roughly triple total demand for electricity.

Why Data Centers Are Called Just a Preview

Electricity use tied to data centers has drawn heavy attention over the past year. But TechCrunch's reporting suggests Breakthrough Energy's investors view that growth as small next to what widespread electrification could bring.

The firm's calculation, as reported by TechCrunch, treats data centers as an early signal rather than the main event. A tripling of demand would reshape planning for utilities and grid operators far beyond current data center buildouts.

A Former Breakthrough Energy Official's View

Ann Mettler, President of Catalyse Europe and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, led Breakthrough Energy's Europe office from 2020 to 2025, the organization founded by Bill Gates.

She told theinnovator.news that the energy crisis driven by conflict and tension in the Strait of Hormuz is speeding up the shift to clean energy rather than slowing it.

Mettler said clean energy now sits within debates over resilience, security, sovereignty and industrial competitiveness, alongside climate policy.

She described a project she calls "grid productivity," which uses artificial intelligence to draw more capacity out of existing power grids instead of building new infrastructure from scratch.

As an example, Mettler pointed to a startup that had developed a way to move green hydrogen through existing natural gas pipelines, cutting both cost and construction time.

Mettler also noted that some governments responding to the energy crisis are turning to coal alongside renewables and nuclear power, which she said makes it more important to get clean technologies to countries that need them.

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