October 23, 2025
Data center firm Crusoe Energy Systems LLC has secured $1.3 billion in new funding to acquire advanced hardware and accelerate the construction of large-scale artificial intelligence data centers, according to a report by the Financial Times. The funding round, which values the company at approximately $10 billion, has not yet been formally announced by Crusoe.
Founded in 2018, Crusoe began with an innovative mission: to capture wasted natural gas from oil field flaring and repurpose it to power computing infrastructure. The company initially deployed modular, mobile data centers directly at well sites, using gas that would otherwise be burned off to fuel high-intensity computing tasks, starting with bitcoin mining before pivoting to AI and high-performance computing.
Today, Crusoe has evolved into what it describes as a vertically integrated “neocloud” operator. The company now builds large, purpose-built facilities, secures low-cost power sources, and offers graphics processing unit (GPU) clusters and AI infrastructure to enterprise clients. Its unique business model generates revenue by both contracting with oil and gas producers to mitigate flaring and by leasing compute infrastructure to AI and tech firms.
This vertical integration allows Crusoe to control the entire value chain, from capturing methane—a potent greenhouse gas—to delivering computational power. The arrangement provides oil producers with a way to avoid flaring penalties and meet emissions targets, while Crusoe monetizes both the computing capacity and the associated carbon mitigation.
The Series E funding round was reportedly led by Mubadala Capital and Valor Equity Partners LP.
“We are seeing tremendous and accelerating demand for compute infrastructure, unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed in my career,” Crusoe Chief Executive Chase Lochmiller told the Financial Times. “OpenAI has been the most public with [its] large announcements, but this is not a trend that’s isolated to them. We are seeing it across the ecosystem.”
Lochmiller revealed the scale of the company's ambition, stating that Crusoe’s current development pipeline amounts to 45 gigawatts of capacity—a figure he equated to the power needs of roughly eight to ten New York Cities.
Specific projects in the works include a massive 1.2-gigawatt campus for OpenAI in Abilene, Texas, with a reported price tag of $12 billion and a completion target of mid-2026. The company is also developing an even larger 1.8-gigawatt campus for an undisclosed tech company in Wyoming.
This latest funding round marks a significant step up for Crusoe, which previously raised $600 million at a valuation of $2.8 billion as recently as December.
SOURCE siliconangle
