Runware wants to build data centers the way carmakers build cars. The AI infrastructure company, which months ago unveiled the Sonic Inference Pod, a factory built modular data center shipped ready to install, told TechCrunch it is now building an assembly line model around the product: a second Romanian factory, started earlier this year, is due to finish within months and come online early next year, with production targeted to reach 30 megawatts of data center capacity per day by 2028, close to a gigawatt a month. At that pace the company would produce in a year roughly what the United States was expected to add in total data center power this year, about 10 gigawatts on Goldman Sachs figures cited by TechCrunch.
The operating claims are as aggressive as the production ones. A pod that once took three weeks to build will soon take one day, the company says, and installation on a customer site is targeted at 48 hours, covering set up rather than manufacture. Customers can supply their own GPUs or rent compute, paying a monthly fee for the pod and operations with power and connectivity charged separately. The pods use closed loop liquid cooling with air cooled radiators, need no water connection, and run silently up to 86 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the company. Runware says it is working with power providers on a site pipeline of 397 megawatts, expandable to 1.2 gigawatts, on sites that typically already have power.
The commercial claim is 1 billion dollars of committed interest since the pods were offered to outside customers a month ago, representing over 20 megawatts now being worked toward delivery. Runware has raised more than 60 million dollars to date, including a 50 million dollar Series A last December, and plans a Series B. It has hired an experienced automotive plant manager to run the ramp alongside its hardware chief, a deliberate echo of its production model.
TechCrunch’s own caution is the right frame: these are plans, and execution is the test. Factory production of complex equipment has a graveyard, led by electric vehicle startup Arrival, once valued above 13 billion dollars, which never made its model produce cost effectively. Runware’s chief executive Flaviu Radulescu argues its cost structure differs, with factory labour cheap relative to the value of deployed compute and designs built from widely available parts, though it still depends on Nvidia for networking and on German suppliers for components such as pumps and fans. Prefabricated pods from Crusoe and Schneider Electric show the format is real; whether it scales like an assembly line is the open question.