Crusoe, an eight-year-old Denver-based data center development company recently valued at $30.9 billion, confirmed Friday that it has sold an unfinished data center project in southeastern Wyoming to Google.
Google, which Mr. Crusoe had unsuccessfully tried to secure as a client for the project, reportedly took over development after concerns about costs and construction schedules arose under Mr. Crusoe’s stewardship.
Crusoe announced the project last year with Blackstone-backed infrastructure company Tallgrass, with plans to eventually expand power capacity to 10 gigawatts.
Google did not say how much it paid Crusoe for the unfinished project, but it announced plans to invest $17 billion to develop its data center campus.
The deal highlights how difficult it is for independent data center developers to deliver large-scale projects on time and on budget, given the challenges of securing equipment and power. Development could become more complicated if opposition from local communities increases.
Despite taking over the Wyoming facility, Google hasn’t completely backed away from working with Crusoe. Crusoe is developing another Google data center near Amarillo, Texas.
The deal to sell the site to Google was first reported by Bloomberg in June, but the Wyoming setback didn’t stop Crusoe from raising $3.9 billion in September.
Crusoe makes money by leasing data center space to customers who bring their own GPUs, renting out its own GPUs, and selling the computing power used to run AI models, known as inference.
Crusoe’s largest projects serve some of the biggest names in AI. The company’s campus in Abilene, Texas, is being built in phases for Oracle and OpenAI, and the company is also building another 900-megawatt campus for Microsoft next door, with the first building expected to be operational in mid-2027. Meta is also a customer, with trading firm Jane Street signing a five-year, $13 billion cloud deal with Crusoe, Bloomberg reported.
Founded by current CEO Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness, Crusoe started life as a natural gas-powered crypto mining business. In September, the company added three board members alongside its $3.9 billion funding round, including JB Straubel, founder of Redwood Materials and Tesla board member who invested in Crusoe in 2021. Crusoe later became the first customer of Straubel’s energy storage business.
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