Hanwha Solutions Invests $100 Million in US Power Management Startup 'Ransium'

Securing Board Seats to Participate in Ransium Management
Diversifying Eco-Friendly Energy Business through Ransium Investment

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Hanwha Solutions is set to acquire shares in the US startup Lansium Technology (Lansium), a company specializing in power management for data centers. The strategy is to secure IT-based power operation expertise to diversify energy businesses targeting the US and Europe, and to establish a new business model combining renewable energy and data centers.

Hanwha Solutions announced on the 24th that it signed a contract to invest $100 million (approximately 120 billion KRW) in Lansium, located in Houston, Texas. Through this investment, Hanwha Solutions will secure a seat on Lansium’s board of directors and participate in future management.

Lansium is a power management specialist company founded in 2017 by US venture investor Michael McNamara. To support a major business expansion, Lansium raised a total of $150 million from Hanwha Solutions and others.

Lansium plans to establish a data center in Abilene, northwest Texas, and provide power generated from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind at optimal prices. Its main customers are IT companies operating high-performance computing equipment with high power consumption, including cloud services, fintech, and cryptocurrency mining.

Lansium will proactively secure low-cost power from renewable energy power producers in the Texas region and supply power stably by utilizing its self-developed power management software, ‘Lansium Smart Response.’ To this end, it has purchased a total of 9.51 million square meters (approximately 2.8 million pyeong) of land across Texas and plans to sequentially begin data center operations from the end of next year. Companies residing in Lansium’s data centers can increase profitability by reducing the operation of high-power computing equipment during expensive time periods and selling the surplus power back to the local power grid.

Hanwha Solutions plans to diversify its eco-friendly energy business by leveraging Lansium’s power management expertise. As the establishment of data centers worldwide is expected to surge due to the advancement of IT environments, Hanwha Solutions aims to build a new business model that reliably supplies power produced from eco-friendly energy to data centers.

Hanwha Solutions also plans to accelerate its transformation into an IT-based ‘future energy provider’ following the acquisition of Lansium shares. Last year, the company acquired the US software firm Growing Energy Labs (GELI), securing capabilities in developing energy management software based on big data and artificial intelligence (AI).