Crusoe sells unfinished Wyoming data center project to Google

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 and failed to land as a customer for the project, is taking over development after reportedly raising concerns about its cost and construction timeline under Crusoe's management. Google did not disclose how much it paid, but it announced plans to invest $17 billion to develop the data center campus.

Wyoming project and Google's takeover

Crusoe initially announced the project last year with Tallgrass, a Blackstone-backed infrastructure company, planning to eventually scale it to 10 gigawatts of power capacity. The deal highlights how difficult it can be for independent data center developers to deliver massive projects on time and within budget, given challenges securing equipment and power. Growing opposition from local communities can further complicate development.

Crusoe's other projects and customers

Despite taking over the Wyoming facility, Google has not walked away from working with Crusoe entirely. Crusoe is developing another data center for Google near Amarillo, Texas. Its campus in Abilene, Texas, is being built in phases for Oracle and OpenAI, and the company is also constructing 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 $13 billion, five-year cloud deal with Crusoe.

Funding and company background

The deal to sell the site to Google was first reported by Bloomberg in June, but the Wyoming setback did not stop Crusoe from raising a $3.9 billion round in September. Crusoe makes money by leasing data center space to customers that bring their own GPUs, by renting out its own GPUs, and by selling compute power used to run AI models, known as inference. Crusoe was founded by Chase Lochmiller, now its CEO, and Cully Cavness, who started it as a cryptocurrency-mining business powered by natural gas that would otherwise have been burned off. In September, alongside its $3.9 billion funding round, the company added three board members, including JB Straubel, the Redwood Materials founder and Tesla board member who invested in Crusoe in 2021. Crusoe later became the first customer of Straubel's energy-storage business.

Sources: TechCrunch