Crusoe, an eight-year-old Denver-based data center developer recently valued at $30.9 billion, confirmed Friday that it sold an unfinished data center project in southeastern Wyoming to Google. Google, which Crusoe had tried unsuccessfully to secure as a client for the project, will take over development after raising concerns about its cost and construction schedule under Crusoe’s direction. Crusoe initially announced the project last year with Blackstone-backed infrastructure company Tallgrass and plans to eventually expand it to 10 gigawatts of power capacity. Google did not disclose how much it paid Crusoe for the unfinished project, but announced plans to invest $17 billion to develop the data center campus. The deal highlights how difficult it can be for independent data center developers to deliver massive projects on time and on budget, given the challenges of securing equipment and power. Growing opposition from local communities may further complicate development. Despite taking over the Wyoming facility, Google hasn’t stopped working with Crusoe completely. Crusoe is developing another data center for Google near Amarillo, Texas. Bloomberg first reported the deal to sell the site to Google in June, but the Wyoming setback didn’t stop Crusoe from raising a $3.9 billion round in September. Crusoe makes money by renting data center space to customers who bring their own GPUs, renting their own GPUs, and selling computing power used to run AI models, known as inference. Crusoe’s largest projects serve some of the biggest names in AI. Its campus in Abilene, Texas, is being built in phases for Oracle and OpenAI, and the company is also building a separate 900-megawatt campus next door for Microsoft, with its first building expected to come online in mid-2027. Meta is also a customer, and Bloomberg reported that trading firm Jane Street signed a five-year, $13 billion cloud deal with Crusoe. Crusoe was founded by Chase Lochmiller, now its CEO, and Cully Cavness, who started it as a cryptocurrency mining company powered by natural gas that would have otherwise been burned. In September, in addition to its $3.9 billion funding round, the company added three members to the board of directors, including JB Straubel, founder of Redwood Materials and a board member of Tesla, which invested in Crusoe in 2021. Crusoe subsequently became the first customer of Straubel’s energy storage business. When you buy through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
