TAR Raises $120m at a $1bn Valuation to Build Off-Grid Power for AI
TAR, an Austin startup that builds off-grid power for AI data centres, has raised a $120m Series A led by Spark Capital at a $1bn valuation. Its co-founder told Bloomberg it is building a project of several hundred megawatts for a data centre customer in Texas.
September 10, 2026 – 7:24 pm
Credit: TAR
TAR has raised a $120m Series A led by Spark Capital at a $1bn post-money valuation. The Austin company builds off-grid power systems for AI data centres. The company announced the round on Thursday. Prior investors Buckley Ventures and Align Fund also took part, Bloomberg reported. Spark Capital is an investor in Anthropic, Bloomberg noted.
What TAR Builds
TAR says it builds self-contained, modular systems of renewable energy generation and batteries in West Texas. According to the release, its systems do not connect to the grid.
Co-founder Pat Becker told Bloomberg the systems combine solar, batteries, and backup natural gas generators. Gas will be used only for backup or emergencies, with renewables and batteries providing most of the energy. “We can deploy in a matter of months,” Becker told Bloomberg.
The company says it handles every step itself, from site selection and design to procurement, construction, and operation. It uses its own deployment automation software and robots to put up generation capacity. Its team includes energy veterans from Hut 8, AES, and Vistra. It also includes robotics engineers from Zipline, GrayMatter Robotics, and Lucid Motors. Becker and Leonhard Soenke founded TAR in 2026.
Projects and Plans
TAR says it is carrying out a utility-scale deployment with one of the largest neoclouds. It is also developing a dedicated project campus and finishing TAR Terminal One, its manufacturing and logistics centre in West Texas.
Becker told Bloomberg the company is building a project for an undisclosed data centre customer in Texas. It will provide several hundred megawatts, he said. TAR plans another large development next year.
The funding will grow TAR’s Austin headquarters and San Francisco engineering office. It will also expand the West Texas site and speed up deployments already under way. The company is hiring in engineering, robotics, power systems, operations, and supply chain.
What They Said
“Gigawatt-scale deployments in tight time windows necessitate owning the full stack end-to-end,” Becker said in the release. Soenke said the company’s focus is “scaling supply to make a real impact on the power shortage stopping the scaling of compute.”
“Power is becoming the main bottleneck to scaling compute,” said Will Reed, a general partner at Spark Capital.
Related TNW Coverage
This month, TNW reported that Texas has 474GW of data centre requests and no clear count of how many are real. Texas Republicans are also running against data centres ahead of the elections. In August, investment firm Kimmeridge said up to half of planned US data centres face delays or cancellation. That month, Emerald AI raised $150m at a $1.05bn valuation to flex data centre power. Jane Street has signed a $13bn five-year AI cloud deal with Crusoe, TNW reported this month.