SPAN Announces XFRA, a Distributed Data Center Solution to Close the Speed-to-Power Gap for AI Compute Demand

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 13, 2026--

Today SPAN announced the launch of XFRA, a distributed data center solution designed to deliver gigawatts of new compute capacity amidst today’s growing power infrastructure constraints. Comprising a distributed network of compute nodes located in residential and small commercial spaces, XFRA enables both the immediate and future compute needs of hyperscalers, neoscalers and AI cloud providers. Initial launch partners include NVIDIA, the world leader in AI computing. This first-of-a-kind solution will launch with enterprise grade, liquid-cooled NVIDIA RTX PRO™ 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260414372626/en/

“SPAN’s unique and differentiated intellectual property in power controls enables us to improve the utilization of existing grid infrastructure,” said Arch Rao, founder and CEO of SPAN. “We have successfully deployed this capability to accelerate home electrification, unlock new home construction, and increase utility grid utilization. Now, distributed compute is the next logical extension of our technology. By building on our core strengths in power optimization and collaborating with industry leaders like NVIDIA, we are collapsing the speed-to-power gap to deliver gigawatts of cost-effective compute capacity at unprecedented speed.”

Closing the AI Speed-to-Power Gap: Accelerating Inference at Scale

AI is transforming global energy demand. In 2024, U.S. data centers consumed 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, totaling more than 4% of America’s total electricity consumption, and experts predict it may exceed 9% by 2030. The grid infrastructure needed to support this scale can take over a decade to build, and some projects already in development have been waiting years for interconnection approval. Additionally, inference is set to account for more than half of all AI workloads by 2030, forcing hyperscalers to rethink technology designs and site selection to overcome current grid constraints. By utilizing existing grid capacity, XFRA is uniquely suited to quickly and efficiently meet industry needs for increased compute capacity.

“As the demand for AI and inference compute continues to accelerate, there is a critical need for low-latency solutions that are proximal to end users and can scale rapidly,” said Marc Spieler, Senior Managing Director of Global Energy Industry at NVIDIA. “SPAN is pioneering new ways to deploy enterprise-grade GPUs in distributed environments. The XFRA solution helps meet the specific power and latency requirements of modern inference workloads while making compute more accessible and efficient.”

Unlocking Capacity at the Grid Edge

XFRA leverages the SPAN smart electrical panel’s core built-in intelligence: integrated energy management and power controls functionality that unlock additional electrical service capacity (headroom) in the existing grid. This capacity powers high-performance compute nodes for AI inference, cloud gaming, and other AI workloads. As these demands rapidly increase, offtakers need a low-cost, low-latency solution that can scale quickly. XFRA is not intended to replace centralized data centers, but instead augment them by accelerating capacity growth at the grid edge. XFRA uniquely leverages underutilized power infrastructure in close proximity to end-users’ demand for inference compute, creating a system-wide win-win.

SPAN is working with leading homebuilders like PulteGroup to accelerate the initial rollout of XFRA on-site. “XFRA offers an innovative solution that can help to reduce build costs,” said Brian Jamison, PulteGroup VP, Strategic Sourcing & Procurement. “Building homes with SPAN Panels, XFRA, and battery backup, not only allows us to deliver homes with lower operating cost, but also allows us to use a home’s underutilized power infrastructure to benefit the grid overall.”

Multi-Stakeholder Value

XFRA delivers a win-win-win across the energy and compute ecosystem:

Powering the Future

By leveraging SPAN’s intelligent power orchestration, XFRA bridges the “speed-to-power” gap. This solution transforms the home into a critical node of the modern grid, meeting the urgent demand for high-performance compute while making the energy transition more affordable and resilient for everyone. With initial deployments beginning later this year, SPAN has developed a pipeline of deployment capacity to achieve gigawatt scale in 2027, enabled by XFRA’s highly distributed structure and low-friction scaling requirements. For more information, including a white paper with details on the technology architecture, visit XFRA.ai.

About SPAN

SPAN is on a mission to enable a more efficient and affordable energy future. The company began by reinventing the electrical panel and continues to transform grid-edge energy infrastructure through combined hardware-software innovation and advanced residential power control systems. Utilities, homeowners and developers all benefit from a smart, affordable and distributed electric grid. With SPAN solutions, grid operators can efficiently meet energy demand without expensive infrastructure upgrades, and those at home can manage their usage without disruption or sacrifice. Powering homes and communities with abundant, clean energy should be human-centered, technology-forward, and simply delightful. With behind and at-the-meter solutions that provide visibility and scale, SPAN helps make that possible. For more information, go to www.span.io.

SPAN Announces XFRA, a Distributed Data Center Solution to Close the Speed-to-Power Gap for AI Compute Demand

Iran reversed its decision to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.

The escalating standoff over the critical choke point threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed conflict, even as mediators expressed confidence that a new deal was within reach.

The strait is closed until the U.S. blockade is lifted, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy said Saturday night. Hours earlier, two gunboats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. It reported that the tanker and crew were safe, without identifying the vessel or its destination.

Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait and further limits would squeeze the already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again. Meanwhile, a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon appeared to be holding.

The fighting in the Middle East conflict, which is approaching the two-month mark, has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, nearly 2,300 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Here is the latest:

Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf says the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long as the U.S. imposes a naval blockade on Iran.

“It is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot,” he said in televised comments aired by Iranian semiofficial media late Saturday.

Qalibaf, who is Iran’s chief negotiator with the United States, said that the strait is now under Iran’s control, linking the choke point’s reopening to the U.S. lifting of its blockade.

“If the U.S. does not lift the blockade, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be restricted,” he said.

He said that the ceasefire was on verge of collapse when the U.S. attempted to mine-clear the strait.

He said Iran viewed the U.S. attempt as a violation of the ceasefire.

“The situation escalated to the point of conflict but the enemy retreated,” he said.

Israel’s military says another soldier died in combat in southern Lebanon, the second death announced in under 12 hours.

It brought the total number of soldiers killed in Lebanon to 15, and was the second soldier killed in combat since the ceasefire.

The military said that another soldier was badly wounded, along with four moderately wounded and four slightly injured.

The navy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said that it extended the closure to the corridor it had earlier designated for the safe passage of vessels through the strategic waterway and declared the strait fully closed until the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports and ships is lifted.

On Friday, Iran said that vessels could move through the strait in coordination with it and against the payment of a toll.

But in a statement late Saturday carried by Iran’s state media, the navy warned that any violating vessel would be targeted.

Iran considers the U.S. blockade a violation of the ceasefire between the two countries. Two vessels were attacked earlier on Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz and off Oman’s coast, at least one of them by Iranian gunboats.

Excavators remove rubble from destroyed buildings that were hit on Thursday by Israeli airstrikes, as they keep searching for victims in Tyre city, southern Lebanon, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A woman member of the Basij paramilitary, affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard, holds her gun during a state-organized rally in support of the supreme leader marking National Girl's Day in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

President Donald Trump listens to speeches before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Saturday, April 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Barber Mohammad Mehdi cuts the hair of his client Ayman Al Zein inside his shop, which was damaged in an Israeli airstrike that also damaged Al Zein's shop, in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

The sun rises behind a tanker anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Qeshm Island, Iran, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Asghar Besharati)