On April 23, Prof. Simona Onori delivered the opening keynote at the inaugural Korea × Silicon Valley Energy Summit, hosted by KVIC Silicon Valley during SF Climate Week. The summit was conceived as the first curated, invitation-only gathering connecting Korea’s energy industry leaders with Silicon Valley’s AI, investment, and innovation ecosystem — a structured evening of keynotes, panels, and conversations among the people shaping the global energy transition.
Her talk, Powering the AI Era: Why Energy, and Why Now in Silicon Valley, made a single argument: the bottleneck of the AI era is not compute, not chips, not talent — it is energy. Global data centers consumed roughly 415 TWh in 2024, and the IEA projects that figure to roughly double by 2030.
Drawing on field evidence from her lab at Stanford, she pointed to two results: real-world driving data shows EV batteries lasting up to 38% longer than constant-current lab tests predict, and properly managed second-life cells from retired EVs can deliver 10+ years of grid service. We are, she argued, systematically underestimating the assets we already have. Korea’s manufacturing depth and Silicon Valley’s systems and software culture have something genuinely complementary to offer each other.
The evening also featured a VC keynote from Jing (Jane) Ge of Vectors Capital, a technical keynote from Stanford’s Dr. Arjun H. Kohli, and a cross-sector panel with leaders from Qcells, RePurpose Energy, Stanford, and Lucid, moderated by Greg (Kwangrog) Kim of Sazze Partners.
Thanks to Juye Kim and the KVIC Silicon Valley team for building the platform.
