The escalating challenge of scaling AI data centers is increasingly centered on power delivery rather than computational capacity. This critical shift has led Peak XV Partners to invest in C2i Semiconductors, an Indian startup developing innovative plug-and-play, system-level power solutions. These solutions are engineered to significantly reduce energy losses and enhance the financial viability of extensive AI infrastructure.
C2i, an acronym for control conversion and intelligence, recently concluded a Series A funding round, securing $15 million. This round was spearheaded by Peak XV Partners, with additional contributions from Yali Deeptech and TDK Ventures. This latest investment brings the two-year-old startup's total funding to $19 million.
This investment arrives amidst a global surge in data center energy demand. Projections indicate a near tripling of electricity consumption from data centers by 2035, according to a December 2025 report by BloombergNEF. Furthermore, Goldman Sachs Research estimates that data center power demand could surge by 175% from 2023 levels by 2030, an increase equivalent to adding another nation among the top ten power-consuming countries.
A significant portion of this energy strain stems not from electricity generation, but from inefficiencies in its conversion within data centers. Here, high-voltage power must undergo thousands of step-downs before it can reach GPUs. Preetam Tadeparthy, C2i’s co-founder and CTO, noted in an interview that this conversion process currently accounts for approximately 15% to 20% of energy waste.
“What used to be 400 volts has already moved to 800 volts, and will likely go higher,” Tadeparthy informed TechCrunch, highlighting the intensifying power requirements.
Established in 2024 by former Texas Instruments power executives Ram Anant, Vikram Gakhar, Preetam Tadeparthy, and Dattatreya Suryanarayana, alongside Harsha S. B and Muthusubramanian N. V, C2i is pioneering a complete overhaul of power delivery. Their approach involves a single, plug-and-play “grid-to-GPU” system that integrates power management from the data-center bus directly to the processor.
By conceptualizing power conversion, control, and packaging as a unified, integrated platform, C2i projects a reduction in end-to-end losses by approximately 10%. This translates to roughly 100 kilowatts saved for every megawatt consumed, yielding substantial positive impacts on cooling costs, GPU utilization, and the overall economics of data centers.
“All that translates directly to total cost of ownership, revenue, and profitability,” Tadeparthy affirmed, underscoring the financial benefits of their solution.
For Peak XV Partners, which emerged from Sequoia Capital in 2023, the appeal of C2i lies in how power expenses critically influence the economics of large-scale AI infrastructure. Rajan Anandan, the venture firm’s managing director, explained to TechCrunch that after the initial capital outlay for servers and facilities, energy costs become the predominant ongoing expense for data centers, making even marginal efficiency improvements immensely valuable.
“If you can reduce energy costs by, call it, 10 to 30%, that’s like a huge number,” Anandan stated. “You’re talking about tens of billions of dollars.”
C2i’s claims are poised for rapid validation. The startup anticipates the return of its first two silicon designs from fabrication between April and June. Following this, C2i plans to rigorously validate performance with data-center operators and hyperscalers who have expressed interest in reviewing the data, as per Tadeparthy.
The Bengaluru-based startup has assembled a team of approximately 65 engineers and is actively establishing customer-facing operations in the U.S. and Taiwan in preparation for its initial deployments.
Power delivery represents one of the most entrenched segments of the data-center stack, historically dominated by established incumbents with considerable financial resources and lengthy qualification cycles. While many emerging companies concentrate on enhancing individual components, C2i’s end-to-end redesign of power delivery demands the simultaneous coordination of silicon, packaging, and system architecture. This capital-intensive strategy is rarely attempted by startups and typically requires years to prove its efficacy in production environments.
Anandan emphasized that the paramount question now is execution, acknowledging that all startups encounter technology, market, and team risks when navigating industry evolution. In C2i’s specific scenario, he believes the feedback loop will be relatively swift. “We’ll know in the next six months,” Anandan remarked, pointing to the forthcoming silicon and early customer validation as the crucial period for testing their core thesis.
This strategic investment also highlights the notable maturation of India’s semiconductor design ecosystem in recent years.
“The way you should look at semiconductors in India is, this is like 2008 e-commerce,” Anandan posited. “It’s just getting started.”
He cited the profound depth of engineering talent in India, which hosts a growing share of global chip designers, alongside government-backed design-linked incentives that have mitigated the cost and risk associated with tape-outs. These factors are making it increasingly feasible for startups to develop globally competitive semiconductor products directly from India, moving beyond the traditional role of captive design centers.
The extent to which these favorable conditions translate into a globally competitive product will become evident in the coming months, as C2i commences the validation of its system-level power solutions with prospective customers.
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