Everything in Observer
Business Description
Giga Energy, co-founded in Houston, Texas in 2019 by Brent Whitehead and Matt Lohstroh while enrolled at Texas A&M University, manufactures AI energy infrastructure and develops data center sites from two domestic factory locations, operating 18 sites totaling 175 MW of flexible load.
The company's product catalog spans three-phase padmount transformers rated from 15 to 10,000 kVA, substation transformers up to 100 MVA and 138 kV, and UL 891 low voltage switchboards up to 4,000A at 480V. Transformers are produced in Houston; switchboards in Los Angeles, California. A global supply chain anchored by a Mumbai production facility and Shanghai engineering office handles component sourcing. Giga Energy has delivered more than 4.5 GW of equipment to date, including more than 1,000 transformers and 200 switchboards, with UL, NEMA, ANSI, IEEE, and DOE 2016 efficiency certifications across its product lines. The company employs more than 150 people across U.S. and international offices.
Giga Energy's origins lie in oil-field bitcoin mining. In 2019, Whitehead and Lohstroh welded modular data center containers to East Texas oil wells to convert flared natural gas into electricity for mining rigs; CNBC reported the operation generated more than $4 million in 2021. The company subsequently built out an electrical infrastructure manufacturing business, logging $4.6 million in 2022 revenue per The Block, and scaling past $150 million in 2025 according to CEO Lohstroh. Early venture funding totaled $3.6 million across a $1.1 million pre-seed in August 2021 and a $2.5 million seed in March 2022 led by Ten31 and Magic Internet Money, followed by a targeted $10 million Series A launched in February 2023.
Beyond manufacturing, Giga Energy develops turnkey AI data center sites on nine-month timelines using in-house general contractor teams and a vertically integrated supply chain. Its development pipeline stands at 500+ MW. The Giga Power Systems platform enables flexible-load site operators in SPP to earn up to $80,000 per MW annually through power market optimization. Compute modules include the Giga Box Air™ (600, 1,430 kW, air-cooled) and Giga Box Hydro™ (liquid-cooled, 45°C ambient rated), both engineered for drop-in deployment into existing data center halls.
In May 2023, Giga Energy announced a joint venture with Atlas Power to deploy bitcoin mining across U.S. oil fields using stranded and flared gas. In March 2024, the company expanded internationally by partnering with Phoenix Global Resources and Exa Tech to launch a 2 MW flare-gas bitcoin mining pilot on Argentina's Vaca Muerta formation. Giga Energy serves the AI data center build-out as a vertically integrated supplier across both manufacturing and site development.
