SolidUltra Secures €3 Million for Modular Power Transformers Built for AI Data Centers

SolidUltra has secured €3 million to develop modular solid-state transformers for a new generation of AI data centers. The French company is targeting a particularly consequential part of the infrastructure stack: converting medium-voltage grid electricity into the 800-volt direct current that future high-density computing facilities are preparing to distribute.

Founded in June 2026 and based in Massy, France, SolidUltra secured the funding within three months of incorporation, backed by its founding partner, French power-electronics group Watt & Well. The money will support engineering, product development, industrialization, and early customer engagement ahead of targeted commercial deployments in 2028.

The investment comes as rising compute density makes electrical design an increasingly important constraint on AI expansion. Adding accelerators requires more than securing chips: operators also need equipment that can deliver power reliably without consuming excessive space or losing too much energy along the way.

A Shorter Power Path Between the Grid and AI Racks

Conventional data center power systems commonly combine a low-frequency transformer with additional conversion equipment before power reaches computing hardware. Each stage has its own electrical losses, cooling requirements, and physical footprint. Those trade-offs become harder to manage as operators plan for megawatt-scale racks.

SolidUltra is developing a medium-voltage solid-state transformer, or SST, intended to replace that arrangement with an integrated grid-to-800VDC conversion system. Here, “transformer” refers to electrical power equipment. The product supplies AI infrastructure rather than performing AI inference itself.

The company’s website adds detail about the modular design: it describes 100-kilowatt cells connected in series on the medium-voltage input and in parallel on the DC output, using automotive-grade silicon-carbide components. It also describes redundant, field-replaceable cells. That architecture is intended to let operators build larger systems from repeated power blocks rather than treating every capacity increase as a separate equipment design.

In its funding announcement, SolidUltra outlines a scaling range from hundreds of kilowatts to 10 megawatts and beyond. For a growing AI facility, the practical attraction is the ability to expand power-conversion capacity alongside computing requirements.

Why 800VDC Is Becoming an AI Infrastructure Priority

SolidUltra is developing into a wider industry transition. NVIDIA’s 800VDC roadmap describes approaches for both existing AC-powered facilities and new, DC-native AI factories, with work through the Open Compute Project to align equipment requirements across the ecosystem.

The underlying electrical advantage is straightforward: at a given power level, a higher distribution voltage requires less current. Lower current can reduce conductor demands and resistive losses, making it easier to move substantial power through a constrained physical space. An 800VDC supply is still an intermediate distribution voltage; computing hardware needs further conversion before electricity reaches the chips.

There is also an important distinction between installing local conversion equipment in an existing facility and designing a new power chain around direct medium-voltage conversion. SolidUltra is pursuing the latter opportunity. Its alignment with the 800VDC transition does not, by itself, establish a commercial partnership with NVIDIA.

Efficiency and Deployment Targets Ahead of a 2028 Launch

SolidUltra is targeting 98.5% conversion efficiency, power losses three times lower than conventional architectures, and an equipment footprint reduced by a factor of four. It also targets approximately 30% lower total cost of ownership and up to a tenfold reduction in the carbon footprint associated with power-conversion infrastructure.

These are development targets for the planned product, rather than independently demonstrated operating results from commercial installations. The carbon claim concerns the conversion infrastructure, while the cost and loss comparisons depend on the conventional system used as the baseline. Conversion efficiency should also be distinguished from the efficiency of an entire data center.

Modularity is part of the reliability plan as well. The company says its field-replaceable power modules are designed to be swapped in under 15 minutes, with an availability target of 99.999%. The objective is to make maintenance more granular, reducing the amount of capacity affected when an individual module needs attention.

SolidUltra also aims to shorten equipment deployment from years to weeks through a factory-built design. Faster installation of conversion hardware could help operators bring prepared sites online sooner, but it does not remove separate requirements for utility capacity, grid connections, permits, or the rest of a facility’s electrical system.

Watt & Well Provides an Industrial Foundation

SolidUltra was co-founded by CEO Raul Iglesias, Chief Business Officer Romain Beaume, Alain Rouault, and Watt & Well. Its model combines a dedicated company focused on AI infrastructure with an established partner’s power-electronics engineering and manufacturing capabilities.

Watt & Well’s existing portfolio provides useful context. The company develops modular power equipment for electric-vehicle charging, including AC/DC and DC/DC applications, as well as bidirectional conversion products for battery energy storage. It also serves demanding energy and aerospace applications. That experience is relevant to designing and producing power hardware, although SolidUltra’s proposed data center system still has its own development and qualification work ahead.

“AI is not only changing computing. It is fundamentally changing the electrical infrastructure required to power it,” Iglesias said in the funding announcement. He described the investment as a way to move toward industrial deployment with Watt & Well’s backing.

Funding the Move From Power Architecture to Production

Following its planned 2028 commercial launch, SolidUltra aims to scale production to 10,000 modular systems by 2032, representing approximately one gigawatt of installed power. That is a production ambition, not a disclosed order backlog.

The €3 million funding gives the company resources to advance the engineering and industrial work between its proposed architecture and deployable equipment. Its opportunity rests on a growing mismatch: AI racks are becoming denser, while the electrical infrastructure serving them takes considerable time and space to build. A compact, modular conversion system could address part of that mismatch—if SolidUltra can deliver its performance, maintenance, and manufacturing targets at commercial scale.