(Yicai) Oct. 21 -- CATL Capital, a unit of battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology, has headed up a nearly CNY100 million (USD14 million) fundraiser for DaMao Technology, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup in the energy field.

The funds raised in the A+ financing round will be used to research, develop, and commercialize energy AI models, computing-electricity coordination platforms, and related intelligent agents, Shanghai-based DaMao announced yesterday.

DaMao plans to create “virtual power plants” within data centers, intelligently aggregating distributed electricity resources to meet the huge energy needs of these hubs, and aims to take a 30 percent share of China’s computing-power coordination market within the next three years, the company said.

AI’s rapid development has led to skyrocketing demand for computing power infrastructure, which is now a key factor restricting the industry’s growth. China’s data centers consumed 166 billion kilowatt-hours last year, around 2 percent of the country’s total power use, per a report released in July by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

Formed in 2021, DaMao aggregates 100 megawatts of electricity through its virtual power plants, and serves AI computing centers with a total capacity of 30,000 petaflops, the company said.

DaMao’s technology is used by leading Chinese AI firm SenseTime at its intelligent computing power center in Shanghai, reducing electricity costs by 6.5 percent through precise energy scheduling, while markedly improving the self-balancing capabilities of the power system, it added.

DaMao has also formed partnerships with state-owned energy giants China Energy Engineering and State Power Investment as well as France’s Schneider Electric.

Editor: Tom Litting