European co. with Houston HQ enters into collaboration to accelerate AI in energy

team work

Two companies with big presences in Houston are collaborating to provide hybrid intelligence with AI. Photo via Getty Images

Two tech companies have teamed up to accelerate artificial intelligence adaption in the energy industry.

Houston-based Radix announced a strategic partnership with data and artificial intelligence company Cognite, a Norwegian company that's expanded to the U.S. by way of Houston, and will aim to implement AI "to streamline and contextualize data management and asset performance across oil and gas, energy, petrochemicals, and manufacturing industries,” according to a news release.

Radix is a global technology solutions company with expertise in engineering, data and software technology, and operations. The partnership allows Radix to utilize Cognite’s Industrial DataOps platform, and Cognite Data Fusion. The combination of Cognite Data Fusion’s innovative technology and Radix’s engineering intelligence will aim to tackle the problem of extracting information from large data pools in non-integrated systems.

According to Radix, the utilization of hybrid intelligence with AI to sort through data in a more refined manner, companies will be able to more intelligently isolate problem areas and work on solutions. This will help with energy optimization, mass balance for production accounting, and inventory management for critical materials according to Radix. Hybrid intelligence can also help accelerate access to data across various independent systems.

“Our partnership with Cognite has shown that we can bring our unique expertise together to empower companies with the hybrid intelligent tools they need to get to the data that becomes valuable and actionable information," Global Head of Alliances & Practices at Radix Flavio Guimarães says in a news release. “With Cognite Data Fusion, we help businesses streamline their data, thus helping to boost decision-making with real-time insights and drive cost reductions across the organization.”

With Cognite Data Fusionn’s solutions aim to enhance scalability, usability, and overall value for users and businesses, in what Radix has called an Industrial Applications Library. Some solutions will be showcased from October 14-15 at Cognite Impact 2024 in Houston, which will include an operational view on actionable insights, improvement workflows for field process, improvements and operational efficiency, OEE monitoring and control, preventative insights for monitoring.

“The Industrial Applications Library creates added value to the digital transformation journey helping companies to achieve optimal operational excellence and significant cost savings for our customers," Trudi Hable, head of strategic alliances for North America at Radix, adds. “Radix’s expertise and intelligence will ensure that real-time information is being relayed to Cognite Data Fusion in an efficient manner, allowing for the right data to be brought to the right people.”

From left to right: Trudi Hable and Flavio Guimarães of Radix and Laxmi Akkaraji of Cognite. Photos courtesy of Cognite

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Energy Transition and Digital Transformation collide at next week's Can't Miss energy event. Image via Shutterstock.

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June 20-21 | Reuter’s Data-Driven Oil and Gas Conference

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New York energy firm scoops up Houston’s Infinity Power Partners

m&a activity

Houston-based energy management and consulting firm Infinity Power Partners has been acquired by New York City-based Environ Energy, which also offers energy management and consulting services.

The deal creates a new “anchor segment” for Environ in the multifamily market. With the addition of Infinity Power’s roughly 2,000 clients in the multifamily sector, representing more than 1 million multifamily units under contract, Environ now has more than 8,000 U.S. clients in the commercial real estate, healthcare, manufacturing, education and government sectors.

“This acquisition continues to solidify our presence in key energy markets while aligning with founders who share our deep commitment to client success,” Environ CEO Chris Sternberg said in a news release.

Infinity Power co-founders and managing partners Nick Altman and Peter Selber have joined Environ, a portfolio company of investment firm 424 Capital. Altman and Selber founded Infinity Power in 2011.

“We built our business one relationship at a time,” Selber said, “with a strong commitment to the communities we serve. That same dedication is reflected in Environ’s approach — now delivered at scale.”

Altman says the acquisition is part of the “next chapter” in energy management. Energy management services help commercial customers reduce utility bills, improve equipment life, achieve green energy goals, and decrease risk tied to fluctuating energy prices.

“Energy management is a culture for continual improvement of energy performance and efficiency that’s integrated within an organization’s normal business practice,” according to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy.

In all, Environ has made six acquisitions in the past 17 months.

Last year, Environ acquired another Houston-based energy management and consulting firm, CSD Energy Advisors. In that deal, Environ gained nearly 1,000 clients, including several Fortune 500 companies and three large industrial energy users in Texas. As part of the deal, CSD co-founders Andrew Barth and JB Sowyrda joined Environ.

Also last year, Environ purchased Carrollton-based energy advisory firm Rapid Power Management (RPM).

Houston's PowerBridge partners on 2GW Texas AI data center campus

data center venture

Houston-based PowerBridge has formed a joint venture with Denver-based Liberty Energy to develop large-scale data center campuses.

The joint venture’s initial focus will be PowerBridge’s Alpha Digital Campus, a 2-gigawatt data center operation planned for West Texas. PowerBridge sets up data center campuses to support AI and cloud computing. Liberty is an energy company whose Liberty Power Innovations subsidiary offers distributed power and energy storage services.

Houston-based investment firm Five Point Infrastructure LLC established PowerBridge last year, committing up to $1 billion in equity. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported Five Point is trying to raise $2.5 billion for a new fund targeting water management projects, natural gas treatment systems and data center sites.

Through Five Point subsidiary LandBridge, PowerBridge enjoys access to more than 275,000 acres for infrastructure development as well as low-cost natural gas.

The first phase of PowerBridge’s West Texas campus is expected to offer more than 300 megawatts of generation capacity, with the potential to add more capacity over time. The campus is scheduled to start delivering power in the fourth quarter of 2027.

“By aligning our powered-campus development assets with Liberty’s comprehensive power services and operational expertise, we are creating a model that can be scaled across future gigawatt-scale powered data center campuses in West Texas,” Alex Hernandez, founder and CEO of PowerBridge, said in a release.

Before joining PowerBridge in 2025, Hernandez led Cumulus Data and Talen Energy Corp., a provider of power and energy infrastructure. Amazon Web Services bought Cumulus Data, a subsidiary of Houston-based Talen, in 2024 for $650 million. Cumulus develops nuclear-powered data centers.

Hernandez sits on the board of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages about 90 percent of the state’s electrical load.

Liberty recently announced a partnership with Houston-based energy technology company SLB to support the expansion of data center capacity.

Energy AI startup chooses Houston for first U.S. office after $20M raise

welcome to houston

London-based AI firm Applied Computing has announced a $20 million Series A round and a new office in Houston.

The new Bayou City office is Applied Computing’s first in the United States and part of its North American expansion. The company is known for its Orbital AI platform, which is tailored for energy operations.

The funding round was led by Houston-based KBR Inc., with participation from San Francisco-based Databricks Ventures. KBR’s investment was first announced in March.

KBR and Applied Computing have also entered into a multi-year agreement to deliver exclusive AI products for the energy sector. KBR already has integrated Orbital into its INSITE 3.0 platform for energy projects, and is also using the product for ammonia production.

Applied Computing’s Orbital platform combines physics-grounded intelligence with models across chemical engineering, time-series forecasting and language, according to the company. The system analyzes sensor readings and can recognize a facility’s equipment constraints and operator activity. The platform can also allow technicians to run simulations of how a change to a facility could affect the rest of its operations.

According to TechCrunch, Applied Computing will use the $20 million to further explore projects and deployments with the energy sector, hire engineering and research positions, and continue to expand internationally, potentially into the Middle East.

The company is also working on deals with a major U.S. stream operator, TechCrunch reports. And Applied Computing shared on LinkedIn that it plans to announce its first partnership with a major European oil company in the coming weeks.

“Yesterday we showed Orbital live in deployments at our demo day at the Energy Institute in London,” Callum Adamson, CEO and co-founder of Applied Computing, posted on LinkedIn on July 16. “Today, we're announcing the capital to scale it globally as well as the launch of our new offices in Houston and Bangalore. In the weeks following, there will be more announcements on our progress, partnerships and deployments.”

The company opened its Bangalore offices in December.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

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