William Layden is Co-Founder and CEO of Rune Energy, a pioneering clean energy compute company building modular, behind-the-meter DC micro data centers that convert stranded renewable power into usable compute and AI inference.

Prior to Rune, William led development of SoftBank Energy's (SB Energy) clean power data center model and founded a hydropowered bitcoin mining operation with Cube Hydro Partners, also gaining experience at Helix Digital Partners and The White House.

William identified a critical inefficiency in the renewable energy sector: vast amounts of clean power from solar and wind sites are lost to clipping and curtailment, and built Rune to capture and monetize that wasted energy.

Rune, co-founded alongside chip design veteran Varun Palivela, has raised $5.57M in funding and is backed by Lowercarbon Capital, with the company pursuing a Texas Retail Electric Provider certificate to expand its market reach.

Rune's RELIC units operate on a fully DC-to-DC architecture that bypasses the traditional grid entirely, positioning the company as the world's first DC data center purpose-built for solar and wind sites.