The National Grid’s commercial arm, National Grid Ventures (NGV), has acquired a 35 percent stake in Joulent to support the company's development of power and electrical infrastructure solutions for large data centers.NGV acquired the stake for $1.75 billion, with the investment expected to support the development of Project Kilby, a 2.67GW co-located natural gas facility being developed in partnership with Chevron. The plant will power Microsoft’s planned 2GW data center in West Texas. The power plant is expected to serve the data center under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement signed last month. First delivery of power is slated for 2028.Joulent was founded by Engine No. 1, which partnered with Chevron last year on the development of gas plants for the data center market. Formally launched in June, the company’s solutions include co-located gas generation, battery storage, renewables integration, and what it calls across-the-meter grid connections, designed to bring large load customers online quickly without shifting infrastructure costs onto local ratepayers."This investment from National Grid Ventures strengthens Joulent's ability to deliver reliable, large-scale power on the timelines AI infrastructure and advanced industry now require," said Chris James, founder and CEO of Joulent.Outside of the capital investment, NGV said it will contribute operational expertise in high-voltage networks, system integration, and project execution. The partnership is also expected to strengthen National Grid's data center connection program, through which it expects to connect more than 10GW of demand across the UK and US over the next five years.Joulent claims to have a multi-gigawatt pipeline of future projects beyond Kilby, without specifying the locations.