Rune launches RELIC to turn idle solar power into AI compute, raises $40M Series A

RELIC attaches to operating solar installations and requires no connection to the electrical grid or new construction work, the company says. Rune states that the equipment can be installed in about 60 minutes and deliver working GPU capacity within six weeks of a contract. That timeline contrasts with conventional data center construction, which frequently stretches across several years before reaching full operational status.

The system operates natively on direct current, solar power's original output form, avoiding energy losses that occur when electricity is converted to alternating current. Rune says RELIC lowers non-compute infrastructure spending by 85%, saving roughly $620 million across a 100 MW deployment. The company also says the unit needs no extensive site preparation, leaves no visible trace across the landscape and operates entirely without consuming water.

Rune's initial working installation sits at a 200 MW solar facility in Texas, mounted on existing infrastructure without any modifications. Solar facilities routinely waste as much as 20% of the electricity they generate, adding up to more than 50 TWh yearly nationwide, TechRadar reported. RELIC pulls that idle current straight from the source, avoiding metering charges, utility fees and the grid limitations that Rune says are slowing AI growth.

"Every solar plant is a latent data center. The power is already there, sitting idle while AI labs wait years for grid connections that may never come," said William Layden, co-founder and CEO of Rune.

Santo Politi, founder and general partner of Spark Capital, said demand for AI infrastructure is growing faster than it can be delivered. "Rune deploys compute directly behind the meter at operating solar farms, converting clean power into rapidly scalable AI capacity," Politi said. "Every renewable asset in operation becomes a potential deployment site. Rune is the fastest path to new capacity we have seen."

Traditional data center construction cannot keep pace with surging demand from artificial intelligence developers and infrastructure buyers, according to the report. Rune's approach places compute equipment directly beside existing renewable generation instead of pursuing new construction projects. Many data centers currently running were adapted from designs built for earlier computing needs rather than for artificial intelligence workloads specifically.

"AI's power constraint isn't generation, it's resource allocation," said Varun Palivela, co-founder and CTO of Rune. "The industry is retrofitting data centers designed for a different era rather than rethinking the architecture itself. We built an entirely new technology stack from the ground up, coupling compute directly to clean generation so AI can scale here on Earth."

The approach leaves Rune testing whether unused solar capacity can support AI computing at the speed required by growing demand.