New solution for AI power shortage: Taiwanese-American Jiang Yeming's iron-air battery secures a $1 billion order from Google

As the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) computing power surges, data center electricity consumption has become a critical macroeconomic challenge that the global tech industry must address. To achieve both stable power supply and corporate net-zero emissions, new long-duration energy storage technologies are increasingly favored by capital markets and infrastructure developers. Recently, Form Energy, co-founded by MIT professor Yi-Ming Chiang from Taiwan, has attracted market attention with its unique “iron-air battery” technology and a major power supply partnership with Google.

Yi-Ming Chiang and Form Energy’s Strong Technical Background

Yi-Ming Chiang, co-founder and chief scientist of Form Energy, was born in Taiwan in 1958 and later immigrated to the United States, earning his bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees from MIT. He is currently a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Chiang possesses high academic authority and extensive entrepreneurial experience in battery technology, having founded several companies including 24M. His core motivation for founding Form Energy is to solve the industry pain point of intermittent renewable energy generation, focusing on developing large-scale grid batteries capable of “multi-day” energy storage to fill critical infrastructure gaps during energy transition.

Principles and Operation of the Iron-Air Battery

Form Energy’s core technology is the “iron-air battery,” which operates through reversible oxidation reactions of iron to charge and discharge. During discharge, iron particles inside the battery are exposed to air, releasing electrical energy through oxidation (rusting process). During charging, the system inputs current to reduce iron oxide back to iron and expels oxygen. The system uses a safe aqueous electrolyte, differing from the complex chemistry of traditional lithium batteries. This simple “iron, water, air” material structure significantly reduces dependence on rare metal supply chains and fundamentally lowers the risks of thermal runaway and fires.

Overcoming Limitations of Traditional Lithium Batteries with Commercial Advantages

From a market competition perspective, the biggest commercial advantages of iron-air batteries are their extremely low construction costs and ultra-long energy storage durations. According to company estimates, the material cost of iron batteries is only about one-tenth that of lithium-ion batteries, and they can provide continuous power for approximately 100 hours—far exceeding the 4 to 8 hours typical of current mainstream lithium batteries. However, their limitation lies in the inability to rapidly output or input large amounts of power in a short time. Therefore, in practical grid applications, operators tend to adopt a “hybrid strategy,” using lithium batteries for short-term peak power fluctuations and iron-air batteries as a long-term baseload energy storage solution, each playing to their strengths.

Form Energy Secures $1 Billion Order from Google AI Data Center

According to TechCrunch, Google has invested $1 billion to purchase Form Energy’s long-duration batteries capable of lasting up to 100 hours, providing 300 MW of power for a new data center in Minnesota, USA. These batteries will be used to smooth power flow from 1.4 GW of wind energy and 200 MW of solar power.

The startup has been dedicated to developing this technology for years and has built a factory in West Virginia to produce the batteries. It was only recently, after reaching this major deal with Google, that the company secured its first large customer.

With this significant order, CEO Mateo Jaramillo stated that the company is raising $500 million in funding. According to PitchBook data, Form has raised a total of $1.4 billion so far. The company plans to go public next year.

This article, “AI Power Shortage Solution: Taiwanese Yi-Ming Chiang’s Iron-Air Battery Secures $1 Billion Google Order,” first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.