Crusoe Sells Unfinished Wyoming Data Center to Google

Crusoe, the Denver-based data center developer valued at $30.9 billion, has confirmed the sale of an unfinished data center project in southeastern Wyoming to Google. Google, which Crusoe had previously sought to win as a customer for the site but failed to secure, is taking over development after reportedly raising concerns about the project’s cost and construction timeline under Crusoe’s management. The project was originally announced last year with infrastructure company Tallgrass, which is backed by Blackstone, and was planned to eventually scale to 10 gigawatts of power capacity. Google did not disclose the purchase price paid to Crusoe but said it intends to invest $17 billion to develop the data center campus. The transaction underscores the operational and financial pressure facing independent data center developers as they attempt to deliver massive AI infrastructure projects on schedule and within budget. Key challenges include securing hardware and electrical capacity, managing construction complexity, and navigating growing community opposition. Google remains a customer of Crusoe elsewhere. Crusoe is developing another data center for the company near Amarillo, Texas, and continues to serve major AI and cloud players. Its Abilene, Texas, campus is being built in phases for Oracle and OpenAI, while a separate 900-megawatt campus under construction next door for Microsoft has its first building expected online in mid-2027. Meta is also among its customers, and Bloomberg has reported that trading firm Jane Street signed a $13 billion, five-year cloud agreement with Crusoe. Crusoe, founded by CEO Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness, began as a cryptocurrency-mining business using natural gas that would otherwise have been flared. It now generates revenue by leasing data center space to customers that bring their own GPUs, renting out GPUs, and selling compute power for AI inference. After selling the Wyoming project, the company raised $3.9 billion in September and expanded its board, adding Redwood Materials founder and Tesla board member JB Straubel, who had previously invested in Crusoe and whose energy-storage business counts Crusoe as its first customer.