A Founder’s Bet on AI Energy

It’s easy to feel like everybody knows something that you don’t.

That’s true in life, and it’s especially true in the stock market.

Some people know more because they’ve spent years studying an industry. Others know more because they sit in the middle of a supply chain or because they see customer demand in real time.

But the people who often know the most are the ones running the companies. They’re sitting on the inside.

They know what’s working and what’s not. They know what’s about to happen next.

That’s why they’re called insiders.

And when they reach into their own pockets… you should pay attention.

Because insider buying doesn’t happen often.

Sure, executives get stock grants and options regularly.

But when they buy shares the same way that you and I do – that’s meaningful.

And when the insider is the founder…

Well, now you’re dealing with the ultimate insider.

The Best Insider Signal

No one knows what’s going on inside of a business better than the person who created it.

So when a founder goes out into the open market and buys more of their own company’s shares with their own money, they’re saying, “I believe this stock is worth more than the market thinks.”

And here’s what makes founder buying so powerful…

This is open-market buying, not an option exercise, not part of a compensation package, not a scheduled plan. This is personal capital.

Founders tend to buy during periods of volatility – often when short-term results obscure longer-term progress.

As the saying goes, insiders sell for many reasons, but they buy for one.

They buy because they think the stock is undervalued… because they think the price is going up.

They have a longer-term vision of the business and its prospects. That’s it.

And when the buyer is the founder – the person who built the company and knows it better than anyone – it’s the clearest signal you can get.

This Founder Is Scooping Up Shares

That brings us to Energy Vault Holdings (NYSE: NRGV) – a company focused on one of the most critical challenges in modern energy infrastructure: long-duration electricity storage.

The grid is changing. And solar and wind are growing fast. That’s good news, but they come with a catch.

The sun doesn’t shine at night, and the wind doesn’t always blow.

So even if we build more renewable power, we still need a way to store it – and deliver it when demand spikes. That’s where long-duration energy storage comes in.

The world is also entering a new phase of electricity demand – not just from homes and factories, but from artificial intelligence.

AI data centers are power-hungry, they run around the clock, and there is no downtime. Training and operating advanced AI systems now consumes as much electricity as small towns. And unlike traditional industrial demand, this load is constant.

That changes the grid.

Utilities can no longer plan only for morning and evening peaks. They now must support always-on computing facilities that cannot afford interruptions.

That’s why AI is not just a software story – it’s an energy story.

And more specifically, it is a storage story.

Because building more solar panels and wind farms does not solve the problem by itself. Those sources generate power when nature allows, not when AI demands it.

So the challenge becomes simple to state but hard to solve:

How do you capture energy when it is available… and release it when AI needs it?

That is exactly what long-duration energy storage is designed to do.

Energy Vault is working on several energy storage approaches, including a concept it’s known for: gravity-based storage.

The idea is straightforward. When energy is plentiful and cheap, you use it to lift heavy material.

When energy is needed, you lower it and generate electricity.

It’s like a modern version of hydropower – but built for places that don’t have rivers or mountains in the right spot.

How it works is pretty technical, but you don’t need the engineering manual to understand the investment case.

You just need to understand this: Energy storage is becoming essential infrastructure, and Energy Vault is building solutions for it.

And Energy Vault is using AI where it actually matters – as the “brain” of the energy system. Through its VaultOS platform, the company uses intelligent software to monitor grid conditions in real time and decide when to store power, when to release it, and how to keep energy flowing smoothly when demand spikes.

The company is not just building storage hardware… it’s building a smarter way to run it. And as electricity demand surges – especially from always-on AI data centers – that kind of AI-driven control becomes a major advantage.

Energy Vault Holdings was co-founded and is led by Robert Piconi, who has spent more than three decades building and running businesses across energy, technology, and healthcare.

Early in his career, he worked in diversified energy with Amoco and BP, then moved into leadership roles at major global firms like Bell Labs/Lucent and Alcatel, where execution and scale matter.

He later founded and ran healthcare and medical device businesses in Europe that were eventually acquired. He has experience building real companies, not just telling good stories.

And during the second half of last year, as the stock began to move higher, Piconi started buying more shares.

Why This Purchase Matters Now

Piconi is a founder with deep operating experience creating and building companies. When an insider like this buys shares in the open market with his own money, it’s not something we ignore.

Energy Vault is not a mature blue chip utility stock. It’s an early-stage infrastructure story – and those are always volatile.

These stocks don’t move in straight lines because…

• Projects take time.
• Contracts take time.
• Permitting takes time.
• Financing takes time.
• Building takes time.

That’s just the reality of the energy world.

So what happens?

The market gets impatient. Investors start focusing on quarterly noise instead of long-term progress.

And that’s often when the best opportunities appear. Because founders like Piconi don’t think in quarters. They think in years.

They know whether the company is gaining traction behind the scenes. They know if the pipeline is getting stronger. And they know whether the market is mispricing the story.

So when a founder buys during volatility, it’s not a coincidence – it’s a statement.

It’s the founder saying, “You may not see it yet… but I do.”

That’s why this matters now.

Energy Vault sits at the intersection of several long-term forces:

• Rising demand for electricity
• Growing renewable energy buildout
• Grid modernization
• The AI power boom.

Right now, the founder – and Energy Vault Holdings’ largest shareholder – is buying stock.

That tells us something. It tells us he believes the company’s future is bigger than the headlines, day-to-day price action, and the market’s mood swings.

That’s the kind of signal we like to see.

How This Fits Our Research Approach

This fits perfectly with how we approach insider-driven opportunities.

We’re not looking for perfection.

We’re looking for alignment.

While insider buying is not a guarantee, it can be a powerful sign that the market is wrong.

And when fundamentals and sentiment diverge…

That’s when the best gains are often made.

Energy Vault is in a market that is becoming more important every year.

Long-duration storage is not optional. It’s required.

And the founder – the ultimate insider – is buying shares with his own money in the open market.

That’s the kind of signal we respect.

That’s the kind of signal we follow.

Recommendation: Buy Energy Vault Holdings (NYSE: NRGV) at the market.