Summary
- Rimac Technology and ECOBLOX have signed a joint development agreement for modular AI data centre infrastructure.
- The architecture combines Rimac UNI batteries and power electronics with UPS, cooling, IT systems and ECOBLOX infrastructure management.
- A completed module is scheduled for installation at Rimac Campus near Zagreb in November 2026.
Rimac Technology and ECOBLOX are developing a modular data centre architecture that brings automotive battery systems and high-voltage power electronics into the electrical infrastructure supporting dense AI compute.
The companies have signed a joint development agreement covering a factory-engineered modular facility. Rimac will contribute battery and power electronics technology, while ECOBLOX will integrate the systems with its modular data centre architecture, cooling, IT hardware and infrastructure-management platform.
A completed module is scheduled for installation at Rimac Campus near Zagreb in November 2026. The deployment will operate as a live demonstration and customer platform, so it should be separated from a commercial fleet or contracted hyperscale installation.
The engineering programme is being developed as AI infrastructure moves towards higher-voltage direct-current distribution. Rimac and ECOBLOX specifically refer to 400VDC and 800VDC architectures, where increasing voltage can reduce the current required to transmit a given amount of power.
Lower current can reduce conductor requirements and electrical losses, which become more consequential as rack demand rises. The voltage change also affects protection, isolation, switching, connectors and maintenance procedures across the power chain, preventing an 800VDC system from being treated simply as a higher-capacity battery attached to conventional infrastructure.
Battery data will feed the control platform
The planned module will use Rimac Technology UNI battery modules, with the battery-management system feeding operational telemetry into ECOBLOX’s data centre infrastructure-management software.
Integrating those data streams allows battery state, alarms and operating conditions to sit inside the same control environment as other facility systems. That can support earlier fault detection and more coordinated operation than a battery installation managed entirely through a separate interface.
Power conversion, UPS equipment, precision cooling and IT infrastructure are also intended to sit within the modular footprint. Building and testing more of those systems before transport can reduce site integration work, although foundations, external power, fibre, heat rejection and final commissioning will still be required at each deployment location.
Rimac says its UNI battery modules were developed for applications requiring compact packaging, thermal management and industrialised production. The data centre programme is applying those characteristics to a different duty cycle, where equipment can operate continuously and infrastructure availability is measured against mission-critical service requirements.
Automotive battery experience therefore provides an engineering base rather than proof that vehicle-system assumptions transfer unchanged into a data hall. Cell operation, redundancy, replacement strategy, fire protection and maintenance access have to fit a stationary installation expected to remain available around the clock.
Higher-voltage distribution reaches beyond storage
ECOBLOX is positioning the battery system within a wider move towards higher-voltage AI infrastructure. The company integrates modular data centres with GPU hardware and both air and liquid cooling, making electrical distribution one part of an increasingly tightly coupled compute system.
Conventional low-voltage architectures can carry very high current as rack and cluster loads rise. Moving portions of the power chain to higher-voltage DC can reduce that current, but it places greater emphasis on coordinated protection and safe isolation because faults must still be detected and cleared without jeopardising adjacent equipment.
The Rimac Campus installation will provide a contained environment in which those interfaces can be demonstrated. It will also allow the companies to test how battery monitoring, power conversion, cooling and compute management behave as an integrated system rather than as individual products.
The partners have not disclosed the megawatt capacity, battery duration, rack density or commercial customer attached to the November unit. Without those figures, the architecture cannot yet be compared directly with conventional UPS systems or larger battery energy storage installations on an equivalent capacity basis.
Nor should ECOBLOX’s claim that the design removes grid constraints be interpreted literally. Battery storage can change the timing and quality of power delivery, but sustained computing load ultimately requires sufficient energy from the grid, local generation or another supply source.
The November deployment will therefore test a narrower proposition: whether automotive-derived batteries and high-voltage electronics can be integrated effectively with modular AI infrastructure whose electrical density is rising faster than that of conventional data halls.
