Heron Power CEO discusses US electricity demand surge and grid capacity

a16z: a16z, or Andreessen Horowitz, is a major venture capital firm investing across AI, infrastructure, and American dynamism themes with over $100 billion under management. It has backed companies like Heron Power through its American Dynamism fund and hosts discussions on technology constraints. The firm is directly referenced in the news via its post framing energy capacity as economic capacity. Appenz: Guido Appenzeller, known as @appenz, is an investor at a16z specializing in AI and infrastructure. A serial entrepreneur and former CTO roles at Intel and VMware, he engages in technical discussions on emerging tech constraints. He joined the recent podcast conversation with Pat Gelsinger and Raghu Raghuram that forms the basis of the quoted news content. Heron Power: Heron Power develops solid-state transformers and power electronics designed to modernize the electricity grid with software-integrated, scalable infrastructure. Founded by Drew Baglino after his departure from Tesla, the company focuses on efficient power conversion for renewables, battery storage, and data centers. Its technology is directly relevant to the news discussion on surging electricity demand and the need to accelerate grid capacity. Drew Baglino: Drew Baglino is the founder and CEO of Heron Power, a startup building advanced power electronics for the grid. A longtime Tesla executive who led powertrain, energy engineering, and related businesses, he brings expertise in electrification and high-volume manufacturing to address modern energy challenges. In the news, he explains how decades of efficiency gains have ended amid broad new demand from compute, transportation, and industrial electrification. Pat Gelsinger: Pat Gelsinger is the former CEO of Intel and currently a general partner at Playground Global, where he focuses on technology investments. With deep experience in semiconductors and infrastructure, he frequently comments on the physical limits constraining AI and data center growth. In the quoted discussion, he highlights how stagnant U.S. energy capacity has acted as a ceiling on economic expansion and warns of risks to AI buildouts without more power. Raghu Raghuram: Raghu Raghuram is a general partner at a16z focused on AI infrastructure and growth investing. Previously CEO of VMware, where he led its transformation into a multi-cloud platform before its acquisition by Broadcom, he brings extensive infrastructure strategy expertise. He participated in the podcast discussion quoted in the news alongside Pat Gelsinger on semiconductors, data centers, and energy limits. Energy Demand Growth: U.S. electricity demand is rising due to expanding needs in data centers, transportation electrification, and industrial uses after years of flat consumption supported by efficiency gains. Grid Modernization Needs: Technologies like solid-state transformers are being piloted to enable faster, more flexible integration of renewables and storage into the grid amid rising overall electricity requirements. AI Infrastructure Constraints: Power availability is emerging as a primary bottleneck for new AI data centers and chip deployments, limiting how aggressively companies can scale compute resources.