Google buys Crusoe's unfinished Wyoming data center, plans $17 billion campus

Google takes over the Wyoming project

Crusoe, a Denver-based data center developer recently valued at $30.9 billion, confirmed on Friday that it has sold an unfinished data center project in southeastern Wyoming to Google. According to TechCrunch, the purchase price was not disclosed, but Google announced plans to invest $17 billion to develop the campus.

The sale marks a sharp turn for a project that Crusoe had hoped would anchor its expansion. Google was a customer Crusoe pursued for the site without success, and Google had reportedly raised concerns about the project's cost and construction timeline under Crusoe's management before deciding to take over the development itself.

Crusoe originally announced the Wyoming project last year alongside Tallgrass, a Blackstone-backed infrastructure company, with plans to eventually scale the site to 10 gigawatts of power capacity. Bloomberg first reported the sale back in June.

Crusoe's broader business stays intact

The Wyoming exit has not ended the relationship between the two companies. Crusoe is developing another data center for Google near Amarillo, Texas, and the setback did not deter investors: the company raised a $3.9 billion round in September, according to TechCrunch.

Crusoe generates revenue in three ways: leasing data center space to customers that bring their own GPUs, renting out its own GPUs, and selling compute for running AI models, known as inference. Its largest projects serve some of the biggest names in AI. Its Abilene, Texas campus is being built in phases for Oracle and OpenAI, and the company is constructing a separate 900-megawatt campus next door for Microsoft, with the first building expected 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.

The eight-year-old company was founded by Chase Lochmiller, now its CEO, and Cully Cavness, who started it as a cryptocurrency-mining operation powered by natural gas that would otherwise have been burned off. In September, alongside the funding round, Crusoe added three board members, including Redwood Materials founder and Tesla board member JB Straubel, who had invested in the company in 2021. Crusoe later became the first customer of Straubel's energy-storage business.

Why it matters

The deal underscores how difficult it has become for independent data center developers to deliver massive projects on time and within budget, given the challenges of securing equipment and power, along with growing opposition from local communities. It also signals a shift in who owns the AI infrastructure buildout: rather than continuing to lease capacity from a developer, Google chose to buy the stalled project outright and control the construction itself. For a company of Crusoe's valuation, with a customer roster that includes OpenAI, Oracle, Microsoft and Meta, selling a flagship project to a prospective customer is a reminder that execution risk, not demand, is the binding constraint in the current AI buildout race. It also shows the advantage that hyperscaler balance sheets hold when large projects run into trouble: Google can absorb a $17 billion commitment where a startup may struggle to keep pace.