西门子逾1亿美元入股爱沙尼亚超级电容厂Skeleton，获其AI数据中心储能技术独家销售权，Skeleton估值破10亿美元成独角兽

Estonia’s Skeleton Technologies has become the country’s latest tech unicorn after raising investment from Siemens AG to manufacture energy storage systems for AI data centers in the US.

The cash injection pushed the Tallinn-based firm’s valuation over $1 billion, Skeleton’s chief executive officer, Taavi Madiberk, said in an interview. The investment, which closed in October, was more than $100 million, the company said, without disclosing the exact amount.

In return, Siemens secured exclusive rights to sell Skeleton’s high-power energy-storage technology to data-center customers, expanding its offering for artificial-intelligence infrastructure, according to Peter Koerte, chief technology officer at the German industrial conglomerate.

Founded 17 years ago, Skeleton is targeting an initial public offering in the US next year, Bloomberg reported in March. Its technology allows data centers to smooth out power fluctuations and save on energy consumption.

Read More: Estonian Battery-Maker Plans US IPO After AI Data Center Pivot

“We will invest over $200 million to US expansion and US manufacturing, so keeping the European technology at the heart,” Madiberk said Tuesday.

“What we see is that also up to 40% more compute can be had on the chips if the power management is done right and the energy is not burned off,” he added. The company is working with “all major hyperscalers” in the US and its technology will soon be deployed across a gigawatt of data-center capacity.

Strong interest from hyperscalers prompted Siemens to deepen the partnership and help develop the technology to sell it to customers, Siemens CTO Koerte said in an interview.

“Our idea, of course, is to provide our customers with an end-to-end solution for data centers,” he added.

The two companies already worked together on Skeleton’s €220 million ($246 million) factory near Leipzig in eastern Germany, where Siemens helped develop an automated production line and digitize manufacturing.

“If things really go well, then we’ll also have the opportunity to expand this significantly further,” Koerte said, adding that greater investment in European AI infrastructure is needed to keep pace with the US.

“We don’t need the next OpenAI right now, what we need is the next generation of AI, which will primarily operate at the application level,” Koerte said. “We need to further expand the infrastructure.”

One of Germany’s most valuable companies, Siemens supplies power and electrical equipment for data centers and uses its industrial software to simulate their design and operation.

Estonia touts itself as a world leader in unicorns per capita, with more than 10 tech companies valued over $1 billion in the country of 1.3 million people. Neighboring Lithuania’s latest tech unicorn is also focused on the AI market, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.