Crusoe Adds 4.5 GW Natural Gas to Fuel AI, Expands Abilene Data Center to 1.2 GW

Crusoe, an AI infrastructure company backed by NVIDIA and Founders Fund, has embarked on a transformative journey to expand its data center capabilities, securing 4.5 gigawatts (GW) of natural gas power through a strategic joint venture with Engine No. 1, a San Francisco-based investment firm. This monumental deal positions Crusoe at the forefront of addressing the burgeoning energy demands of artificial intelligence (AI) operations, offering a scalable and sustainable solution for the industry's future.​

Founded in 2018 by Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness, Crusoe initially focused on mitigating natural gas flaring by converting stranded energy into computational power for cryptocurrency mining. Recognizing the escalating computational needs of AI, Crusoe pivoted to become a vertically integrated AI infrastructure provider, aligning its mission with environmental sustainability and technological advancement. This evolution attracted significant investments, including a $500 million fundraise led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, elevating Crusoe's valuation to approximately $3 billion. ​

Securing 4.5 GW of Natural Gas Power

In a landmark move, Crusoe has partnered with Engine No. 1 to secure 4.5 GW of natural gas power, sufficient to operate millions of NVIDIA AI chips. This collaboration involves the utilization of seven GE Vernova turbines, acquired by Engine No. 1 and Chevron, to generate power directly for AI data centers, thereby circumventing traditional utility grids that often face capacity constraints. ​

Christopher James, founder and chief investment officer of Engine No. 1, emphasized the critical importance of rapid deployment in AI development, stating, "Speed-to-market is the most critical aspect of powering AI development in the United States." This sentiment underscores the urgency in establishing robust infrastructure to support the AI industry's exponential growth.​

And it’s Crusoe who will directly benefit from this available power, as only a few days after announcing this partnership, the company announced the significant expansion of their data center infrastructure at the Lancium Clean Campus in Abilene, Texas.

Lancium provides an end-to-end solution for its data center tenants, including:

•          Land acquisition
•          Grid interconnect
•          Site engineering
•          Renewable energy
•          Power interconnection

At the Abeline site, the company also plans to provide behind-the-meter battery storage and solar power generation. Crusoe’s announcement also highlighted plans to make use of wind generated renewable power and plans to incentivize greenfield power development.

Michael McNamara, Co-founder and CEO of Lancium, remarked:

Expansion Strategy

The development of its AI data center campus in Abilene is central to Crusoe's expansion strategy. Construction commenced in June 2024, with the initial phase comprising two buildings totaling 980,000 square feet and over 200 megawatts (MW) of power capacity. This phase is expected to be operational in the first half of 2025. ​

Building upon this foundation, Crusoe announced the second phase of construction, which includes six additional buildings, expanding the facility to eight buildings encompassing approximately 4 million square feet and a total power capacity of 1.2 GW.

Each of the data center buildings is planned to run a single network fabric with up to 50,000 of NVIDIA’s GB200 NVL72s AI GPUs. Shar Narasimhan, director of data center GPUs and AI at NVIDIA, expressed enthusiasm for the project, saying:

This expansion is anticipated to be completed by mid-2026, marking a significant milestone in scaling AI infrastructure. ​

Chase Lochmiller, co-founder and CEO of Crusoe, highlighted the significance of this development, stating,

Strategic Collaborations, Industry Impact, and Sustainability

Crusoe's strategic positioning has attracted collaborations with major tech entities. The company is in discussions with OpenAI's $500 billion Stargate project, Google, and Meta, all seeking reliable energy sources for their AI operations. The Abilene facility, developed in partnership with Oracle, is set to host a cluster of NVIDIA's latest AI chips for OpenAI, exemplifying Crusoe's commitment to advancing AI capabilities. ​

The scale of these recently announced projects is setting a new bar for defining what a large project actually encompasses. OpenAI's Stargate project aims to invest $500 billion in data centers requiring over 5 GW of power, while Meta has proposed a $200 billion data center initiative with similar power needs.. ​

As we continue to see, the rapid advancement of AI technologies has precipitated a substantial increase in energy consumption. Traditional utility companies have exhibited caution in rapidly expanding power generation, wary of potential overcapacity should AI demand decline unexpectedly. This cautious approach has created opportunities for companies like Crusoe, willing to undertake calculated risks in power procurement to meet the escalating demands of AI infrastructure. ​

Though natural gas is considered a cleaner alternative to other fossil fuels, it still is a net creator of carbon, in an environment where the goal is net-zero for carbon release. Recognizing this, Crusoe and its partners plan to integrate post-combustion carbon capture systems at their facilities, which allows the addressing of environmental concerns, while still making rapid deployment possible. ​

Additionally, the Abilene data center campus is designed with sustainability in mind, featuring direct-to-chip liquid cooling via a zero-water evaporation system that continuously recirculates water through a closed-loop system. The campus also plans to leverage abundant nearby wind resources and incentivize new greenfield renewable power development, aligning with Crusoe's climate-aligned mission. ​

Community and Economic Impact

Like just about every significant data center development project, the expansion of the Abilene data center campus will have a profound economic impact on the local community. The construction site currently employs approximately 2,000 workers daily, with expectations to reach nearly 5,000 as the expansion progresses.

The Development Corporation of Abilene (DCOA) has estimated that the direct and indirect economic impact of the initial phase of the project is approximately $1 billion over 20 years, with the expansion potentially amplifying that impact significantly. Highlighting the potential for job creation and economic growth and the long term benefit for the region, Abilene Mayor Weldon Hurt remarked:

Crusoe and the Lancium Clean Campus: A New Model for Power-Optimized Compute

Crusoe Energy’s 300-megawatt deployment at the Lancium Clean Campus in Abilene is a significant marker of how data center strategies are evolving to integrate more deeply with energy markets. By leveraging demand flexibility, stranded power, and renewable energy, Crusoe is following a path similar to some of the most forward-thinking projects in the data center industry. But it’s also pushing the model further—fusing AI and high-performance computing (HPC) with the next generation of power-responsive infrastructure.

Here’s how Crusoe’s strategy compares to some of the industry’s most notable power-driven data center deployments:

Google’s Oklahoma Data Center: Proximity to Renewable Growth

A close parallel to Crusoe’s energy-centric site selection strategy is Google’s Mayes County data center in Oklahoma. Google sited its facility there to take advantage of abundant wind energy, aligning with the local power grid’s renewable capacity. Similarly, Crusoe is tapping into Texas’s deregulated energy market, optimizing for low-cost renewable power and the ability to flexibly scale compute operations in response to grid conditions.

Google has also been an industry leader in time-matching workloads to renewable energy availability, something that Crusoe is enabling in real time through grid-responsive compute orchestration.

Sabey Data Centers in Quincy: Low-Cost Power as a Foundation

Another instructive comparison is Sabey Data Centers’ Quincy, Washington, campus, which was built around one of the most cost-effective power sources in the U.S.—abundant hydroelectric energy. Sabey’s long-term strategy has been to co-locate power-intensive compute infrastructure near predictable, low-cost energy sources.

Crusoe’s project applies a similar logic but adapts it for a variable grid environment. Instead of relying on a fixed low-cost power source like hydro, Crusoe dynamically adjusts to real-time energy availability, a strategy that could become a model for future power-aware, AI-driven workloads.

Compass and Aligned: Modular, Energy-Adaptive Infrastructure

From a data center design perspective, Crusoe’s approach aligns with the modular, power-optimized strategies used by Compass Datacenters and Aligned Data Centers. Both companies have refined build-to-scale models that enable rapid deployment of energy-efficient infrastructure.

Aligned, in particular, has pioneered cooling and energy efficiency technologies that dynamically adjust to compute density and workload demand. Crusoe is taking a similar approach—leveraging adaptive compute scheduling to align with available power, ensuring maximum efficiency for AI and HPC workloads.

Switch’s Citadel Campus and Stack Infrastructure: AI and HPC Demand Shaping Energy Strategy

Crusoe’s focus on AI and HPC also mirrors the shift toward high-density, power-sensitive workloads seen in projects like Switch’s Citadel Campus in Nevada and Stack Infrastructure’s AI-optimized facilities in Portland and Dallas.

Both Switch and Stack have strategically located campuses near major energy corridors to ensure low-cost, high-reliability power for AI, cloud, and hyperscale customers. Crusoe’s approach takes this a step further by integrating real-time power price responsiveness, allowing its workloads to migrate or scale based on the dynamic economics of the Texas grid.

The Big Picture: A Convergence of Compute and Grid Intelligence

The Lancium Clean Campus is an important case study in how data center infrastructure is evolving to meet the realities of modern power markets. Like Google, Sabey, Compass, Aligned, Switch, and Stack, Crusoe is optimizing its footprint around energy availability and efficiency. But by integrating AI, HPC, and dynamic power orchestration, it’s setting the stage for a new wave of power-aware compute deployments.

As AI continues to drive unprecedented power demand, the industry will likely see more projects like Crusoe’s—where compute is not just consuming power, but actively shaping how power is utilized.

At Data Center Frontier, we talk the industry talk and walk the industry walk. In that spirit, DCF Staff members may occasionally use AI tools to assist with content. Parts of this article were created with help from OpenAI's GPT4.

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