Energy Vault secures 275 MW of engines for AI campuses facing grid delays
Rolls-Royce MTU equipment is due from late 2027 through early 2028 as Robert Piconi expands Energy Vault into financed power infrastructure.
By RuntimeWire Staff · Published
Primary source: Financial Times Markets
Why it matters
Energy Vault is reserving scarce power hardware before hyperscale sites are ready, shifting execution risk toward customer conversion and project economics. AI's power bottleneck is pulling a gravity-storage pioneer into owned generation infrastructure.
Power-infrastructure developer Energy Vault, co-founded by Robert Piconi, secured equipment financing from Eagle Point Credit Management to contract 275 MW of Rolls-Royce MTU reciprocating-engine generation capacity for future AI and high-performance computing campuses.
Energy Vault said in its September 10 announcement that deliveries will begin in the second half of 2027 and continue through the first half of 2028. Those dates are the point. Energy Vault is reserving long-lead power hardware while prospective hyperscale projects are still being assembled, giving Piconi something concrete to sell when customers ask how soon a campus can be energized.
Piconi built Energy Vault's first chapter around gravity storage, using raised and lowered blocks to store electricity. He brought an operator's resume to the concept, with earlier executive roles at Amoco and BP, Bell Labs and Lucent, Alcatel and Danaher. He had also founded healthcare-services and medical-equipment businesses that were later acquired.
Nine years after Energy Vault's 2017 founding, Piconi is pushing beyond individual storage systems. Energy Vault now wants to develop, finance, build, own and operate the full power stack serving data centers: land, grid access, onsite generation, batteries, power conversion equipment and controls. The 275 MW procurement is one of the clearest commitments yet behind that expansion.
Buying time in the power queue
The International Energy Agency reported that data-center electricity demand grew 17% in 2025, with AI-focused facilities growing faster. The pressure has reached the physical supply chain. The IEA identified tighter availability for gas turbines, transformers, chips and other equipment, alongside delays in grid connections and regulatory approvals.
Reciprocating engines give developers a modular source of dispatchable onsite generation while grid infrastructure catches up. Energy Vault plans to combine the Rolls-Royce MTU equipment with battery storage, grid-forming power conversion and plant controls. Individual blocks can be deployed in phases as a campus adds computing capacity.
That architecture turns Energy Vault's storage portfolio into part of a broader power product. Batteries can handle short-duration fluctuations and power-quality requirements, while engines provide sustained generation. Controls coordinate the assets and their interaction with the grid. Energy Vault calls the packaged offering Powered Land.
Energy Vault says the newly contracted equipment will support multi-gigawatt discussions with hyperscale customers. The 275 MW represents generation capacity reserved for future delivery. It is not operating capacity or revenue, and Energy Vault has not allocated it publicly among individual campuses.
Cory Magnuson, president of Energy Vault's Asset Vault unit, described the procurement as taking control of equipment availability and capital. Those two constraints increasingly determine whether a developer can offer a credible energization date or merely a site plan.
Financing the pivot without draining the balance sheet
Eagle Point's participation matters because Piconi's Build, Own & Operate strategy requires Energy Vault to commit capital well before a project produces recurring cash flow. Energy Vault says the dedicated financing limits the corporate cash required before the equipment is assigned and deployed.
The economics will depend on the financing principal, interest rate, collateral and repayment structure, which were not included in the announcement. Energy Vault also did not give an equipment price or contract value.
That discipline is consequential for Energy Vault's balance sheet. In its 2025 annual filing, Energy Vault reported $203.7 million in revenue, $103.4 million in year-end cash and a $103.6 million net loss. Energy Vault had accumulated losses of $487.4 million since inception.
Energy Vault also reported a $1.3 billion backlog at the end of 2025, although roughly $490 million came from contingent option bookings. The filing cautioned that backlog, bookings and the developed pipeline may never produce revenue, or may convert on a different schedule than management expects.
The Eagle Point structure matches that risk profile. It gives Energy Vault control of scarce equipment without requiring Piconi to fund the entire procurement from corporate cash while customer discussions, site development and commercial agreements move forward.
Energy Vault has already used other financing structures to build its owned-asset portfolio. The 2025 financial materials described a $300 million preferred-equity framework for Asset Vault projects, and Energy Vault completed a $150 million convertible-notes offering in February 2026, according to its SEC financial-results filing. The latest financing adds an equipment-specific layer to that capital stack.
Piconi's larger bet
Piconi is betting that the power bottleneck will reward developers able to deliver an integrated project rather than a collection of components. Hyperscale customers need generation, storage, controls, land and grid connections to arrive on a coordinated schedule. A developer that controls only one piece remains exposed to delays elsewhere.
Energy Vault's earlier identity as a storage technology vendor gave Piconi technical credibility around batteries, power electronics and controls. Powered Land asks Energy Vault to take on a different class of work: real-estate development, fuel and generation planning, equipment procurement, project finance and long-term asset operation.
The 275 MW procurement improves Energy Vault's position in that work because equipment delivery slots can become a competitive advantage. It also transfers the central execution question to customer conversion. Energy Vault must turn its multi-gigawatt discussions into binding projects with sites, commercial terms and dependable cash flows before the first engines arrive in 2027.
For Piconi, the procurement is a practical extension of the strategy he has been building since Energy Vault began acquiring and operating energy assets. Gravity storage made Energy Vault recognizable. AI campuses could make Energy Vault an infrastructure owner, provided the reserved hardware ends up attached to projects that pay for it.