JB Straubel, co-founder of Tesla and founder and CEO of Redwood Materials, speaking at Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2026 in Aspen, Colorado. Michael Faas/Fortune

China is building new power generation at an unprecedented pace to power the AI boom as the U.S. grid struggles to keep pace with the development of data centers, triggering more delays and project cancellations.

I think we should be really worried,” said Tesla cofounder JB Straubel at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen on Monday.

“I think the grid can’t handle it,” said Straubel, who left Tesla in 2019 to build the Redwood Materials battery recycling firm as its founder and CEO. “The pace of growth and demand of energy is unprecedented.”

Straubel and Redwood are increasingly interested in the grid. Originally focused on electric-vehicle battery recycling, Redwood is now growing even more on using battery recycling to build battery energy storage for hyperscalers and the grid.

With U.S. electricity demand expected to surge anywhere from 50% to 80% between 2024 and 2050, depending on projections, the need for more sources of energy is critical.

Redwood just announced this week a new partnership with General Motors to use recycled EV batteries to power GM’s plant operations—just as GM invests in the next wave of battery technologies for EVs.

Straubel said the industry requires a mix of rapid grid growth and more behind-the-meter power solutions to hopefully meet the challenges. “It’s a period of renaissance for the energy industry,” he said, arguing that big problems spur the most innovative solutions.

Dana Guernsey, cofounder and CEO of Voltus, focused on the optimistic side of the future. “The grid can’t handle it yet,” Guernsey said during the panel, emphasizing the “yet.”

“Energy is now often the gating thing to furthering the AI economy,” she said. “Being able to get more out of the current grid” is critical.

In that vein, Voltus focuses on demand response and virtual power plants, convincing industrial users and residential customers to turn their thermostats over to AI at times of peak demand—and returning excess renewable energy back to the grid if available—to save energy and keep energy prices lower, essentially acting as a de facto power plant. —Jordan Blum

An “infinite bowl-making machine” can make 500 salads, Tex-Mex, and poke bowls with the exact ingredients you want down to the personalized macros you’re tracking in one hour. A human worker can’t compare, according to entrepreneur Marc Lore.

“I don’t know exactly how many a single person can do, but it’s not going to be more than probably 30 an hour, maybe 45,” said Lore, who spoke at the 25th anniversary Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen on Tuesday. Lore previously sold two businesses, Diapers.com and Jet, to Amazon and Walmart, respectively, for $3.8 billion before founding food-tech startup Wonder in 2018, where he serves as chairman and CEO. 

The automated infinite bowl technology, which Wonder acquired from salad chain Sweetgreen, spins each bowl on a turntable while ingredients drop into place, based on the specs from an online delivery app order. The resulting bowl, said Lore, has “no errors,” so a hungry patron gets exactly what they ordered. Lore said Sweetgreen already runs the infinite bowl tech across 32 locations, and it will land in its first Wonder kitchen next month

Lore described Wonder as a “vertically integrated food platform” that owns 26 restaurant brands, including a Bobby Flay steakhouse and delivery options that include fried chicken, pizza, Chinese, and Thai food. Wonder also owns and manages the kitchens, and handles delivery after buying GrubHub in a deal valued at $650 million that closed in 2025. By combining all the different brands in a single kitchen, Lore said Wonder can serve geographies and regions that don’t have the population numbers to support larger fast-casual chains like Chipotle or Cava. 

With everything included in a single profit pool, Lore claims, the prices are less expensive because the margins don’t need to support both restaurants and delivery companies. A single 10-ounce Bobby Flay steak “cooked to perfection” costs $36 and bowls are under $10, he said.

“We can stay open until 2 a.m. in the suburbs because we can operate all 26 restaurants with three people late night,” Lore added. One human staffer answers the hotline, another handles finishing the dishes, and the third works the handoff to delivery drivers. —Amanda Gerut

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—AI isn’t replacing Hyatt’s salespeople; it’s freeing up a full day of work every week.

—Europe wants sovereign AI, but most of the chips are from the U.S.

—The AI industry spent years chasing bigger models. Now it’s chasing efficiency.

—Anthropic debuts Claude Fable 5, a Mythos-class AI model for the masses.

—Taiwan may restrict AI chip sales to all customers in China, not just companies on an export blacklist.

—Super Micro seeks to raise $7 billion through equity and related financing for AI component purchases.

—Kalshi will require select users making certain bets to submit a form disclosing where they work.

—Apple’s new Siri AI isn’t available in the EU after the company failed to secure an exemption for the bloc’s privacy and security requirements.

—Meta leases its first AI data center in India from Reliance, the local conglomerate.

—SoftBank’s attempts to raise $6 billion through a loan backed by its OpenAI stake have reportedly stalled.