Crusoe sells troubled Wyoming data center project to Google

Crusoe, an eight-year-old Denver data center developer, confirmed Friday it has sold an unfinished data center project in southeastern Wyoming to Google. The buyer was precisely the customer Crusoe had courted and failed to win for the site; Google is now taking over the development itself.

Google reportedly raised concerns about the cost and construction timeline of managing the project under Crusoe's oversight. It did not disclose what it paid, though it announced plans to invest $17 billion to develop the campus. Crusoe had launched the project last year with Blackstone-backed infrastructure company Tallgrass, with an eventual target of scaling to 10 gigawatts of power capacity.

The handover illustrates how difficult it is for independent developers to land and finish projects of this magnitude on time and within budget, given the challenge of securing equipment and power. Opposition from local communities can add further friction to siting and building at this scale.

The Wyoming loss has not ended the Crusoe-Google relationship: Crusoe is separately developing a data center for Google near Amarillo, Texas. Google's arrival also coincides with Crusoe's other campuses being anchored by major AI buyers. Its Abilene, Texas site is being built in phases for Oracle and OpenAI, while a separate 900-megawatt campus next door is going up for Microsoft, with its first building expected online in mid-2027. Meta is also a customer.

Crusoe was founded by CEO Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness as a cryptocurrency-mining business powered by natural gas that would otherwise have been burned off. Today it earns money three ways: leasing data center space to customers who bring their own GPUs, renting out its own GPUs, and selling inference compute used to run AI models.

Open questions remain. Google has not said what it paid or whether the 10-gigawatt vision survives the change in ownership, and it is unclear whether the transfer reshapes Crusoe's other Google assignment near Amarillo. Equally open is whether the developer can finish its remaining campuses — including Microsoft's first building, due mid-2027 — on the schedules its customers are counting on.