Energy‑storage startup Torus announced a $500 million Series C financing round aimed at speeding up production of its Foundry modular AI data center system.

Foundry units are transportable, shipping‑container sized packages that integrate battery storage with AI inference hardware, offering capacities between 1 MW and 20 MW per unit.

The round was led by Magnetar with participation from Iconiq Capital, Origin Ventures and Trinity Capital, and the proceeds will fund manufacturing and early deployments; AI infrastructure provider Hydra Host is listed as a customer.

Torus says the units can be installed at commercial sites that already have excess electricity capacity, enabling businesses to add AI compute without major grid upgrades.

CEO Nate Walkingshaw estimates a typical Foundry deployment can be completed in roughly four months, a faster timeline than conventional hyperscale data‑center builds.

Torus operates a 545,000‑square‑foot manufacturing facility called GigaOne in Salt Lake City, which is intended to increase production of the company’s energy‑storage systems.

The company positions Foundry as a response to rising U.S. demand for AI compute amid constraints on electricity supply, grid‑connection delays and community opposition to large‑scale data‑center projects.

Torus has not disclosed specific deployment locations, unit pricing or construction partners, and will need to translate the new capital into manufacturing capacity and additional customer contracts in the coming months.