Off-Grid AI Data Centers Powered By Second-Life Tesla Batteries. Built in 200 Days. | Casey Spencer

The grid queue for a 10MW data center is 5 years. At this pace, AI can't wait 5 years for power. Casey Spencer and his co-founders Max Pfeiffer and Evan Schmidt decided the best grid connection is no grid connection. Voxel Energy (YC W26) is building off-grid AI data centers in 200 days — powered entirely by second-life Tesla batteries nobody else thought to use. In this episode: Casey's path from mind-controlling a drone to win a hackathon, to shipping thousands of Model 3s at Tesla, to founding Voxel Energy — how they source and qualify second-life Tesla packs, why a full DC microgrid gives them a 26% efficiency edge over traditional AI infrastructure, how Voxel is solving the AI energy crisis one grid-independent data center at a time, how they got 600 acres under contract for $10K, and yes — his favourite cartoon. Learn more about Elias:https://deeptech-decoded.com/guests/casey-spencer Timestamps:0:00 Meet Casey Spencer - Tesla, world records, and pizza-fueled capitalism3:27 The lemonade stand and young entrepreneurship6:16 Hackathons: the community that changed everything11:54 Mind-controlling a drone at CalHacks 201416:59 The unconventional path: Make School → Tesla → Voxel Energy19:38 Voxel Energy - off-grid data centers with repurposed Tesla batteries26:59 Why second-life batteries actually work for mission-critical compute31:16 The DC microgrid advantage - 26% more efficient than AC34:00 The gigawatt delusion and what you can actually build now37:46 1,500 acres, 60 megawatts, $10,000 to start42:21 Sales in deep tech - warm intros only46:41 Audience Q&A - iron-air, hydrogen, grid balancing51:16 Crossing the chasm: customers before prototypes55:44 Geography, permits, and why Google paid $4B for California approvals59:22 Deep tech is having its moment1:03:49 Modular data centers and the liquid cooling demolition wave1:08:39 Data centers in space - the thermal management question1:15:09 The founder mindset - failure, flexibility, and core thesis1:20:44 The future in 10 years - Jevons' paradox and the human condition1:35:36 Touch grass