The Vertical Stack Technology Coalition For Near-Zero Emissions PBC (VTCNZE) today announced a proposed national "Speed-to-Power" framework designed to deploy approximately 600 GWh of distributed grid storage within 48 months by adapting the CHIPS-era public equity model to critical energy infrastructure. The proposal follows the federal government's recent use of minority, non-controlling equity stakes in strategic technology companies receiving public incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act.
VTCNZE believes that same taxpayer-aligned model should now be applied to the physical power infrastructure required to support frontier artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, defense readiness, robotics, and high-density data center growth. "The CHIPS model changed the conversation from one-way subsidy to taxpayer upside," said Max Davis, Founding Architect of VTCNZE. "If public authority can accelerate quantum and semiconductor infrastructure while preserving value for the taxpayer, the same principle should apply to the energy infrastructure needed to power frontier AI. Chips do not matter if America cannot turn them on."
VTCNZE's proposed framework calls for a coordinated public-private deployment model built around high-density, load-adjacent, non-lithium energy storage assets positioned near major computing and industrial load centers. Rather than relying solely on sprawling horizontal battery farms or years-long utility interconnection queues, the framework prioritizes compact, modular, vertically integrated storage structures capable of being deployed on urban industrial parcels, brownfields, underutilized public land, and infrastructure-adjacent sites.
Across the United States, data center growth is colliding with constrained substations, multi-year interconnection backlogs, transformer shortages, land-use conflicts, and rising concerns that infrastructure costs may be shifted onto residential ratepayers. VTCNZE's proposed model is designed to address that bottleneck by creating a repeatable pathway for rapidly deployable, high-density storage assets that can support critical load centers while reducing grid stress. "The limiting factor is speed," Davis said. "America cannot wait four years for a conventional substation review while AI infrastructure, semiconductor strategy, quantum computing, and national security systems are all racing ahead."
The proposed framework would allow federal, state, and municipal entities to participate in qualified infrastructure projects through minority, non-controlling equity positions or comparable economic participation rights. Under the conceptual model, the federal government could contribute national priority designation, financing access, and permitting coordination; state governments could contribute statutory clean-grid authority and infrastructure bank liquidity; and municipal governments could contribute brownfield access, land easements, and local permitting acceleration. Private investors and infrastructure partners would contribute project capital, engineering execution, and operating discipline. The result would be a taxpayer-aligned infrastructure model where public partners share in the long-term value created by accelerating strategic infrastructure.
A central component of the proposal is what VTCNZE calls the "WIMBY Factor" — Welcome In My Backyard. Under this concept, qualifying AI and energy infrastructure projects should not pass avoidable grid upgrade costs onto residential ratepayers. Instead, projects receiving public acceleration should include mechanisms for direct local benefit, such as municipal equity participation, local revenue sharing, and workforce pathways. "Behind-the-meter cannot mean behind-the-community," Davis said. "If a neighborhood is being asked to host the infrastructure of the AI age, that neighborhood should not be treated as an afterthought."
VTCNZE argues that energy infrastructure now belongs in the same category as semiconductors under the CHIPS Act. "Chips require fabs. Fabs require power. AI requires data centers. Data centers require storage, transformers, substations, cooling, and resilient electricity," Davis said. "The next layer of American industrial policy is power." The company is calling for immediate cooperation among public-sector authorities, utilities, data center operators, and infrastructure financiers to evaluate pilot deployment pathways, particularly in Illinois and the Chicago region, which it sees as strong candidates for early pilot evaluation.
