Crusoe raises $3.9B at $30.9B valuation to expand AI data center capacity

Crusoe, an eight-year-old AI infrastructure company, announced a $3.9 billion Series F round that values the business at $30.9 billion. The round was co-led by Atreides Management, Mubadala Capital, and Valor Equity Partners, with participation from Founders Fund, GIC, Nvidia, Qatar Investment Authority, Radical Ventures, and TPG.

The new capital will support existing data center projects, including a large facility in Abilene, Texas used by OpenAI, and fund the deployment of modular AI factories branded as Spark. These modular units can be transported by truck and connected to power sources in diverse locations, enabling faster deployment and potentially reducing local opposition to large-scale data center builds.

Crusoe generates revenue by leasing data center space to customers who provide their own GPUs, renting out its own GPU inventory, and selling inference compute used to run AI models. The company’s customers include Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, and Jane Street, with whom Crusoe recently signed a $13 billion, five-year cloud contract.

Crusoe was founded in 2018 as a crypto mining operation powered by flared natural gas before pivoting to AI infrastructure as demand for compute surged. The company has discussed a potential IPO with advisors including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, according to a report last month.