Google Founding Board Member Ram Shriram Joins GridCARE Board of Directors

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 15, 2026--

GridCARE, the company accelerating time-to-power for modern AI Factories, today announced that Ram Shriram has joined its Board of Directors. A founding board member of Google and one of Silicon Valley’s most influential technology investors, Shriram brings decades of experience scaling category-defining platforms during major industry transitions.

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“I’ve always invested in exceptional entrepreneurs and innovators solving real, consequential problems,” said Shriram . “The AI revolution is being throttled by a single constraint: power. GridCARE is tackling a foundational challenge for the AI economy, and its team brings unmatched depth across power systems and AI to solve it at the scale and urgency the moment demands.”

“From recognizing Google’s potential at its inception to helping shape some of the most iconic technology companies of our era, Ram’s track record speaks for itself,” said Amit Narayan, Founder and CEO of GridCARE . “His experience scaling category-defining platforms and building enduring companies will be invaluable as we meet the unprecedented demand for AI infrastructure.”

A Legendary Track Record in Technology Investing

Ram Shriram's investment acumen has shaped the modern technology landscape. In 1998, Shriram was among the first outside investors in Google, providing critical early-stage capital and strategic guidance that helped transform a Stanford research project into a global technology giant. He has served on Google’s board since its founding and continues today as a board member of Alphabet Inc.

Before his legendary Google investment, Shriram served as Vice President at Netscape during the dawn of the internet age and later as Vice President of Business Development at Amazon.com under Jeff Bezos. In 2000, he founded Sherpalo Ventures, an early-stage venture firm with a portfolio that includes category leaders such as Notion, Skyroot, and Gusto.

"The pace of AI and cloud growth demands new thinking about how we power the digital economy," said Christian Belady, a GridCARE advisor, former Vice President of Data Center R&D at Microsoft, and creator of the industry-standard PUE metric . "GridCARE's approach is exactly what the industry needs: making better use of existing infrastructure to accelerate time-to-power while keeping costs down for everyone. Ram Shriram joining the board validates what those of us in the data center world already know: this team is building something essential."

GridCARE: Rapid Momentum in AI Infrastructure

Shriram’s appointment follows a strong year of execution and growth for GridCARE. The company emerged from stealth in May 2025 as the first startup born out of the Stanford Sustainability Accelerator and closed a highly oversubscribed $13.5 million seed financing round led by Xora, a deep-tech venture capital firm backed by Temasek.

GridCARE accelerates deployment of AI Factories by reducing data centers' time-to-power from 7+ years to under 12 months. The company estimates it can activate over 100 gigawatts of capacity across the U.S. power grid — capacity that has been overlooked by traditional grid planning methods but is immediately actionable for AI infrastructure deployment. The company has rapidly secured partnerships with major utilities, including Pacific Gas & Electric and Portland General Electric. It is currently working with over a dozen hyperscalers, data centers, and powered land developers.

GridCARE has already demonstrated the impact of its platform, unlocking 400 megawatts of capacity in Hillsboro, Oregon, one of the most sought-after locations for AI data centers in the United States. The company's recently published white paper details how AI Factories can help reduce electricity costs for all ratepayers by optimizing grid utilization and enabling more efficient infrastructure deployment.

“ Ram Shriram understands how to build companies that matter, and this one matters,” said Mohsen Moazami, GridCARE advisor and former Office of the CEO/President of Groq (asset acquired by Nvidia) . “GridCARE makes better use of our existing infrastructure — that is good for AI, good for utilities, and good for every consumer. ”

World-Class Team

GridCARE brings together a founding technical team from Stanford, including Ram Rajagopal, a Stanford Professor and leading researcher in AI for power systems; Liang Min, Executive Director of Stanford’s Bits & Watts initiative; and Arun Majumdar, Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and former Vice President of Energy at Google. This technical foundation is complemented by seasoned operators, including Alaina Bookstein (Head of Sales and Partnerships, former AWS Global Head of Strategic Business Development), Jessica Hogle (Head of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs, former PG&E and TVA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs), and Shaneez Mohinani (Head of Strategy & Operations, former Goldman Sachs). Amit Narayan, a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits, leads the company. He previously founded Berkeley Design Automation (acquired by Mentor Graphics/Siemens) and AutoGrid (acquired by Schneider Electric), scaling both into category-defining companies.

GridCARE's investor roster reflects the company’s position at the nexus of AI infrastructure and climate technology. In addition to lead investor Xora (backed by Temasek), the company has secured investments from Aina Climate AI Ventures, Overture Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, WovenEarth, Acclimate Ventures, Clearvision, Clocktower Ventures, and Sherpalo Ventures. The round also attracted prominent technology and energy leaders, including Tom Steyer, Gokul Rajaram, Bill Younger, Felix Zhang, Balaji Prabhakar, and Tarun Raisoni, reinforcing the company’s potential to reshape AI infrastructure.

About GridCARE

GridCARE delivers Speed-to-Power for AI data centers. Our physics-based AI platform identifies and activates near-term capacity on today’s grid, enabling data centers to energize faster while helping utilities grow without compromising reliability or affordability.

Founded at Stanford’s Doerr School and backed by leading AI and energy investors, GridCARE strengthens U.S. AI competitiveness by accelerating access to power at scale. To date, the GridCARE platform has created more than $10 billion in economic value for data center developers by bringing hundreds of megawatts online years ahead of schedule.

Learn more at gridcare.ai.

Ram Shriram, founding Google board member and early investor, joins GridCARE's Board of Directors

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that he will allow service members to carry personal weapons onto military installations, citing the Second Amendment and recent shootings at bases across the country.

In a video posted to X, Hegseth said he is signing a memo that will direct base commanders to allow requests for troops to carry privately owned firearms “with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”

He said any denial of a service member's request must be explained in detail and in writing.

“Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones,” Hegseth said. “Unless you're training or unless you are a military policeman, you couldn't carry, you couldn't bring your own firearm for your own personal protection onto post.”

Questions about why service members lacked access to weapons have often emerged following shootings on the nation's military bases. Such shootings have ranged from isolated events between service members to mass casualty events, such as the shootings by an Army psychiatrist at Texas’ Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead.

Hegseth cited some of the events in his video, including a shooting that injured five soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia last year. Officials said the shooter, an Army sergeant who worked at the base, used his personal handgun before he was tackled by fellow soldiers and arrested.

“In these instances, minutes are a lifetime,” Hegseth said. “And our service members have the courage and training to make those precious, short minutes count.”

Defense Department policy has prohibited military personnel from carrying personal weapons on base without permission from a senior commander, with strict protocol for how the firearms must be stored.

Typically, military personnel must officially check their guns out of secure storage to go to on-base hunting areas or shooting ranges, then check all firearms back in promptly after their sanctioned use. Military police are often the only armed personnel on base, outside of shooting ranges, hunting areas or in training, where soldiers can wield their service weapons without ammunition.

Tanya Schardt, senior counsel at the Brady gun violence prevention organization, said in a statement that Defense Department leaders and the military’s top brass have opposed relaxing the current policy, which was originally enacted under President George H.W. Bush.

Schardt noted that most active duty service members who die by suicide do so with a weapon they own personally, not one military-issued, and argued that there will “undoubtedly be an increase in gun suicide and other gun violence.”

While fewer American service members died by suicide in 2024, the suicide rates among active duty troops overall still have gradually increased between 2011 and 2024, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday.

“Our military installations are among the most guarded, protected properties in the world, and they’ve never been ‘gun-free zones,’” Schardt said. “If there is a problem with violent crime on these installations, then the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to alert the American people and describe how he’s working to prevent that crime.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)