Ex-Tesla VP Drew Baglino Raises $140M to Replace 100-Year-Old Grid Tech

The Grid's Century-Old Problem

America's electrical grid still runs on iron-core transformers — technology that has existed in essentially the same form for more than 100 years. They're cheap and efficient but bulky, heat-generating, and not built for the demands of AI data centers and renewable energy integration.

Heron Power's Solution

Heron Power, founded by former Tesla VP Drew Baglino, has raised $140 million in Series B funding to commercialize its solid-state transformer technology. The round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism Fund and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Heron's product, Heron Link, is a modular solid-state transformer that enables renewable energy, storage, and data center developers to connect directly to medium voltage transmission — eliminating multiple pieces of legacy equipment in the process.

Why Now

The timing is deliberate. Eric Schmidt recently warned that America needs 92 more gigawatts of electricity for AI. Data centers are projected to consume 12% of US electricity by 2028. The grid must modernize — and solid-state transformers are a core piece of that upgrade.

The Factory Plan

Heron Power will use the new funding to build a factory capable of producing 40 gigawatts of Heron Link transformers annually — a production scale that signals serious ambition to become infrastructure, not just a startup.

The Bottom Line

Ex-Tesla VP Drew Baglino just raised $140M to replace 100-year-old transformer technology with solid-state hardware capable of handling AI-era power demands. With 40GW of factory capacity planned, Heron Power isn't just a bet on grid modernization — it's a bet that the grid must modernize, urgently.