A Charlotte-area tech company leaned into EVs. Then data centers came along
A 10-year-old Charlotte-area technology company has found a new application for its circuit breaker. Atom Power is shifting focus from electric vehicle charging equipment to the burgeoning data center industry.
Atom Power developed the world’s first commercial solid-state circuit breaker, which is drawing attention from hyperscale data centers to meet performance demands and safety needs. A hyperscale data center is a massive cloud computing facility, often exceeding 50MW of power usage, designed for companies like Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
Over the past couple of years, the surge in artificial intelligence fueled by apps, websites and other tech has created the need for the rapid expansion of massive data centers to handle the demand. The Carolinas, with Charlotte at the center, are now seen nationally as a rising hub that’s helping expand that supply.
Atom Power’s technology, which has been field-tested in the EV industry, is now being repackaged to fit the data center boom. The move comes as Atom Power’s anticipated growth in the EV industry have stalled and the Trump administration retreats from fuel-efficient vehicles.
Atom Power isn’t pivoting to data centers so much as expanding in the industry, Atom Power leaders stressed. The company, which does all design and manufacturing locally, expects the industry growth could lead to more manufacturing jobs in Huntersville and contract partnerships to meet the volume demand. The company has current capacity to build 5,000 circuit breakers in-house running under its current one shift, said David Artuso, Atom Power director of supply. So there is room to add more shifts.
“To put it in perspective,” Atom Power co-founder and co-CEO Denis Kouroussis said, “one hyperscale data center purchase order can potentially take up all the volume that we can do in one year.”
Inside Atom Power’s Huntersville manufacturing facility
The Charlotte Observer recently toured the 20,000-square-foot Huntersville manufacturing facility inside The Park-Huntersville industrial park, off Interstate 77, exit 23, north of Charlotte.
It was a quiet morning as about five employees prepared items for customers, including running tests on circuit breakers. Throughout the room are Atom Power’s purple EV charging stands and large white breaker boxes ready for assembly.
Atom Power’s solid-state circuit breaker technology offers a significant leap in safety, company officials said.
Traditional mechanical breakers take milliseconds to interrupt a fault, a brief but dangerous window where an arc flash, or dangerous, high-temperature electrical explosion, can occur. Atom Power’s digital breaker eliminates this risk, by cutting the power in nanoseconds or microseconds.
“It is the safest circuit breaker on the planet,” Kouroussis said.
This technology is ideal for AI data centers because their powerful servers use a massive, continuous flow of electricity. That continuous power makes it impossible for traditional safety switches to work correctly.
Atom Power’s solid-state breakers technology can support the growth of data centers, Chief Technology Officer Binesh Kumar said.
“There’s not really a competing product out there,” Kumar said. “That’s why they are looking for better technology with us.”
The company’s breakers can handle up to 100 amps, and is developing higher-amp versions for distribution and a remote power panel for the hyperscale market.
“We are preparing to launch a few new products designed for the next generation of data centers,” Artuso said.
Tech pioneer adept at shifting gears
Atom Power was co-founded in 2015 by Kouroussis and Ryan Kennedy as a UNC Charlotte incubator, a project that started at the college before spinning off its own company and moving to the Lake Norman area.
The company pioneered a UL-listed product and even helped UL develop an alternative standard, the UL 489i, company officials said. Siemens is the only other company to have a UL listing on a smaller product compared to Atom Power’s approved for commercial use, Kouroussis said.
To be UL listed means a product has been independently tested by Underwriters Laboratories and verified to meet specific, rigorous and nationally recognized safety standards.
“Fundamentally, that core technology that was built from the early days still is around circuit protection,” Kouroussis said. “We pivoted to make that solid-state circuit breaker into an EV charging solution.”
Atom Power initially focused on using its circuit breakers for industrial automation but moved into EV charging in 2020.
In 2023, Atom Power pledged a $4.2 million investment to create 205 jobs at its Huntersville facility for EV charging infrastructure. That ambitious plan, which would have more than tripled its workforce, was tied a state grant of $1.2 million. Atom Power fell short of its job targets growth for its EV charging station plan and was forced to forfeit the financial incentives.
At that time of the 2023 announcement, Atom Power had 82 employees. There are now about 30 full-time workers at its manufacturing and warehouse facilities. The privately-held company declined to disclose its revenue.
Now, Atom Power sees additional room for growth. Beyond the digital world, Atom Power’s circuit breaker can be used in other "highly volatile environments," such as oil and gas or chemical processing facilities, and critical infrastructure such as hospitals.
“We’re a local company with cutting-edge technology,” Artuso said, “that will be a part of this data center boom.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 5:13 AM.
