Why We Invested: VEIR
By Roxanne Tully and Lee Larson, Piva Capital
The first high-voltage power transmission line in the United States went live over 130 years ago, carrying electricity from the Willamette Falls hydropower plant to Portland’s streetlights. Fast forward to today — the North American power grid has grown into the world’s largest machine, connecting more than 7,300 electricity generating plants to 400 million consumers via a staggering 7 million miles of transmission and distribution lines.
While nearly every part of our society has been modernized by new technology, the fundamentals of transmitting electricity have changed little. We still rely on wires — first copper, now aluminum. Unfortunately, these wires leak at least 5% of the electricity they carry — that’s over 200 billion kilowatt-hours per year, enough to power 20 million U.S. homes. Worse yet, these inefficient transmission lines are bottlenecks in our power grid, driving up costs and slowing down the energy transition when we need it most.
Fig. 1: U.S. power transmission losses stuck in the 7–9% range since the 1960s
Enter VEIR: The Company Redefining Power Transmission
VEIR is pioneering superconducting power cables that can deliver up to 10 times more power at the same voltage, all while reducing line losses by 90%. By combining advanced superconducting materials with a novel evaporative cooling system, VEIR has unlocked the full potential of superconductors at a fraction of the historical cost.
VEIR’s cable systems fundamentally shift the paradigm for power delivery and enable the next wave of energy load growth.
Why now? The Triple Threat Driving Demand for New Transmission
The energy transition is not a theoretical challenge — it’s here now, and VEIR’s solution arrives at a critical moment, as three converging forces create unprecedented demand for next-generation power delivery:
1.Next generation of AI data centers: Data Center power demand is set to double or triple in the next five years, equivalent to adding the entirety of New York State’s energy consumption to the grid. AI queries require 10 times more energy to execute than a basic web search, while image and video AI require 300 to 10,000 times more energy. The newest AI hardware like NVIDIA’s next-gen GPUs will push server rack power demand from 15–20 kW today to 125kW. Traditional power distribution simply can’t keep up. VEIR’s superconducting cable enables AI data center operators to increase rack density, improving latency effects and AI performance. It also enables a total re-imagining of data hall design and layout because unlike conventional copper and aluminum power busbars, VEIR’s superconductor is not limited by voltage drop.
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Fig. 2: Increase in power draw for AI chips (left) and at the server rack level (right)
2. Industrial electrification: Heavy industry is shifting away from fossil fuels, adopting electrification technologies like molten oxide electrolysis, methane pyrolysis, and e-fuels production. These processes require high-capacity, high-efficiency power delivery that conventional power infrastructure can’t provide. VEIR’s cables are a natural fit, ensuring these industries can scale efficiently.
3.Renewables stuck in gridlock: The U.S. has over 2.6 TW of renewable energy projects waiting to connect to the grid — more than twice the country’s existing generation capacity. VEIR’s smaller, denser cables can carry much more power through existing corridors, reducing the need for costly and lengthy right-of-way studies and construction. Reduced line losses also mean less curtailment of renewable power during sunny, windy days, making more renewable projects economically feasible.
Fig. 3: U.S. interconnection timelines have tripled to reach roughly 5 years on average
Scaling Grid Infrastructure for a Decarbonized Future
The combination of increased electricity demand and increased supply of renewables waiting to connect to the grid will drive a wave of investment in transmission infrastructure not seen since the post-World War II era. The math is sobering: to meet national energy goals, we need to build or refurbish 80 million kilometers of power lines worldwide over the next 15 years, equivalent to the entire existing grid capacity built over the past 70 years. BCG estimates that $7 trillion of investment is needed by transmission grid companies globally by 2050.
VEIR’s solution — replacing outdated infrastructure with power-dense superconducting cables — is a more practical and economical way to solve these massive challenges.
Fig. 4: The U.S. only added 3,238 miles of high-voltage transmission in the last 8 years
A Team Built to Scale
Tim Heidel (CEO) and his team at VEIR combine world-class expertise in power transmission, data centers, and large-scale industrial infrastructure. They are moving at an impressive speed to bring this breakthrough technology to market, and we couldn’t be more excited to participate in their recent $75 million series B.
Piva invests in companies that transform our energy, industrial, and manufacturing systems. The future of power transmission isn’t just about adding more lines — it’s about making the lines we build radically more efficient. VEIR is leading that charge, and we’re betting that the next era of electrification will be superconducting.
