Google Takes Over Crusoe’s Troubled Wyoming Data Center Project

Crusoe, an eight-year-old Denver-based data center developer currently valued at $30.9 billion, has confirmed Friday that it has sold an unfinished data center project located in southeastern Wyoming to Google.

Although Google was originally the intended customer for the project that Crusoe could not secure, the company is now taking over the development after raising concerns regarding the project's escalating costs and construction timeline under Crusoe's management.

Originally announced last year in partnership with Blackstone-backed infrastructure company Tallgrass, the project was intended to eventually scale to a massive 10 gigawatts of power capacity.

While Google has not disclosed the purchase price for the unfinished facility, the company announced plans to invest a total of $17 billion to fully develop the data center campus.

This transaction highlights the significant difficulties independent data center developers face in delivering massive projects on time and within budget, particularly due to challenges in securing necessary equipment and power. Additionally, growing opposition from local communities can further complicate development efforts.

Despite assuming control of the Wyoming facility, Google has not severed ties with Crusoe entirely, as the latter is currently developing another data center for Google near Amarillo, Texas.

Although the sale to Google was first reported by Bloomberg in June, the setback in Wyoming did not halt Crusoe's momentum, as the company successfully raised a $3.9 billion funding round later that September.

Crusoe generates revenue by leasing data center space to customers who bring their own GPUs, renting out its own GPU fleet, and selling compute power for running AI models, a process known as inference.

Crusoe's largest projects cater to some of the biggest names in the industry. Its campus in Abilene, Texas, is being built in phases for Oracle and OpenAI, while the company is also constructing a separate 900-megawatt campus next door for Microsoft, with the first building expected to come online by mid-2027. Additionally, Meta is a customer, and Bloomberg reported that trading firm Jane Street signed a $13 billion, five-year cloud deal with Crusoe.

Crusoe was founded by CEO Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness, who initially launched the company as a cryptocurrency-mining business powered by waste natural gas. In September, alongside the completion of its $3.9 billion funding round, the company added three new board members, including JB Straubel, the founder of Redwood Materials and a Tesla board member who invested in Crusoe in 2021. Crusoe subsequently became the first customer of Straubel's energy-storage business.