What the business is
Form Energy makes iron-air batteries that store grid power for up to 100 hours by rusting and un-rusting iron.
The bet
That data-centre and utility demand for 100-hour iron-air batteries justifies a large expansion of manufacturing capacity in West Virginia.
Starting capital
$750M Series G led by T. Rowe Price with Sequoia, Coatue, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, GE Vernova and others.
How it started
Form's iron-air chemistry stores massive amounts of electricity for less by oxidising iron on discharge and reducing it on charge. Most U.S. storage installed in Q1 2026, 9.7 GWh, up 32% on 2025, can discharge for only a few hours, while Form's can run up to 100 hours.
What happened
On 12 August 2026 Form said it raised $750M to expand manufacturing in West Virginia. Customers include Google, which is building a Minnesota data centre partly powered by a 30 GWh Form battery costing about $1B, Crusoe, which said in March it would buy 12 GWh, Xcel Energy and FuturEnergy Ireland. Data centres are expected to quadruple their US electricity use by 2035.
What has to be true
AI data-centre construction was raising demand for energy storage.
US electricity demand was rising for the first time in decades.
Long-duration storage bridges multi-day gaps in renewable generation.
A mostly US supply chain helped Form win large new customers.
What can be applied
A new battery chemistry only becomes a business when a new buyer, such as AI data centres, creates enough orders to justify the factory.
Aftermath
As of 2026-08-12 Form had closed the $750M Series G and held a backlog of about 80 GWh, per WSJ; expanded factory output was still to come.
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