Happy Monday.

It’s been a longer weekend than usual (Halloween with an extra hour thanks to Daylight Saving Time stacks up).

The spookiest part of it all? Anthropic’s S-1 filing.

Well, probably not in the way you think. A major bottleneck in the ambitious tech of the future is energy. And Voya wants to replace diesel generators with a faster, cheaper alternative.

Arek and Ethan 🦄

Electricity demand is growing faster than the infrastructure needed to support it. Voya is developing a way to generate electricity using something you might not expect: aluminum.

Voya is developing diesel-replacement generators powered by specialized fuel pellets made from scrap aluminum. When fed into the generators, these pellets react with air and water through an electrochemical process that converts their stored energy into electricity.

If this sounds ridiculously cool, that's because it is.

Compared with traditional diesel generators, this process produces virtually no noise or emissions. Besides, it can be stored for decades and be transported using existing infrastructure. Plus, the process creates aluminum trihydrate, a byproduct that can be sold for industrial applications or recycled back into aluminum fuel.

Its modular technology can be combined into larger systems, including generators that can produce two megawatts of power, enough to meet the average electricity needs of roughly 1,600 American homes.

Check it out: voya.energy

Voya plans to sell its generators and supply aluminum fuel, collecting the byproduct for recycling.

It initially targets data centers awaiting grid connections and industrial facilities that need reliable power. Longer term, its technology could support military bases operating in remote locations and emergency response teams restoring power after natural disasters.

We can say Matt Horton has a knack for energy. Before trying to replace diesel generators with aluminum, he helped bring electric buses, trucks, and charging infrastructure to market. He started working in venture capital in 2000, shortly after the dotcom crash, focusing on emerging clean technologies. 

Horton became CEO of Propel Fuels in 2009, where he spent approximately five years building a business around cleaner transportation fuels. In 2014, he joined Proterra, a company working to bring electric buses to American roads. Over the following six years, he helped grow the business and eventually became its CCO. Then came a different challenge at Rivian, where Horton built a 120-person team focused on the energy and charging infrastructure needed to support electric vehicles. And, most recently, he partnered with private equity firm EQT to launch Voltera, a company focused on building charging infrastructure for electric vehicle fleets.

Throughout these experiences, Horton saw firsthand how difficult it was to keep up with the growing need for electricity. Even as new electric technologies advanced, getting the necessary power infrastructure in place remained costly and complicated.

In December 2024, shortly after leaving Voltera, Horton met with Shayle Kann, a managing partner at Energy Impact Partners. Kann introduced Horton to the unusual idea of energy-dense metals as fuel, which eventually led the team to explore aluminum as a way to store and generate electricity.

After spending much of his career trying to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, Horton saw an opportunity to rethink how electricity could be delivered. Unlike batteries, which store electricity, metals like aluminum contain chemical energy that can be released through an electrochemical reaction.

Horton joined forces with Richard Wang, who founded Cuberg, a Stanford spinout developing lithium-metal batteries that was later acquired by Northvolt. They were joined by Steven Kaye, a battery scientist with more than 20 years of experience, including serving as CTO of Our Next Energy and Head of Advanced Materials at Apple.

Together, they founded Voya in 2025 to develop aluminum-powered generators that could replace traditional diesel systems. Their vision is to make electricity more accessible by creating generators that can operate anywhere, without requiring new grid connections or fossil fuel deliveries.

The world is running into an electricity problem. As we explored in our DeepCorner: Energy article, technologies like AI and electric vehicles are driving demand faster than utilities can keep up. Global data center electricity consumption alone could more than double by 2030, reaching approximately 945 terawatt-hours annually.

Building new power plants, transmission lines, substations, and grid connections can take years. For companies investing billions of dollars in data centers or industrial facilities, waiting years for electricity can mean losing millions in potential revenue. They can't afford to wait that long.

Voya is developing an alternative that could allow businesses to generate their own power without depending on traditional grid infrastructure.

Turns out, aluminum is an awesome fuel source. Aluminum is abundant, supported by an established global supply chain, and can store significant amounts of energy in a relatively small space. Unlike traditional batteries, which can degrade over time, aluminum pellets can be stored for decades without losing their energy potential.

This is valuable for backup power. Many businesses, such as hospitals and data centers, need generators that can operate during emergencies but rarely use them. Voya's technology would allow companies to store large amounts of energy without constantly maintaining or replacing the fuel.

Voya's founding team has experience tackling exactly these kinds of challenges. They've seen firsthand what it takes to turn promising energy technology into a commercial business. 

Aluminum has some interesting advantages that could make it a valuable energy source. It's abundant, relatively easy to transport, and can store large amounts of energy in a small space. Unlike batteries, which can lose charge over time, aluminum fuel can sit unused for decades until it's needed. This makes it particularly attractive for businesses that need reliable backup power but may only use their generators occasionally.

There's also the potential for a circular fuel system. Voya plans to collect the aluminum byproduct after electricity generation and eventually recycle it into new fuel. If successful, this could reduce the need for new raw materials and create a more economical way to store and deliver energy over time.

Of course, there's still a significant difference between demonstrating the technology and making it commercially viable. Producing aluminum requires substantial energy, and Voya will need to prove that its fuel economics work while scaling manufacturing. Established diesel generators and improving battery technologies also create stiff competition. But if Voya can overcome these challenges, aluminum could become a practical alternative for industries that need large amounts of reliable electricity.

As electricity demand continues to outpace infrastructure development, the ability to generate reliable power wherever it's needed could become increasingly valuable. If Voya can make aluminum a practical and affordable source of electricity, it could help remove that barrier. The next wave of innovation won't just depend on what we can build, but whether we have enough energy to power it.