Crusoe announced on Tuesday that it has paused plans to develop a large AI-focused data center campus in Wyoming that, as described in initial proposals, would require an amount of electricity comparable to powering a city the size of Denver.
According to people familiar with the matter, Crusoe has effectively been pushed aside on the project. Those people said Crusoe sought potential customers for the site, including Alphabet Inc.'s Google, but was unable to secure commitments.
Discussions with Google reportedly stalled after the company raised concerns about both the expected costs and the project timeline if Crusoe remained the development partner. The individuals providing those details requested anonymity because the conversations were not public.
Black Hills Corp., the energy utility that had been arranging power agreements for the Wyoming site, said Wednesday that it will move forward with the development but without Crusoe as the partner handling the build-out.
With Crusoe no longer part of the development team, the people said Google is working to finalize an agreement with the remaining partners to purchase computing capacity from the planned site.
Context and implications
The pause in Crusoe's role leaves the project in a reconfigured partnership stage, with the utility partner continuing development and at least one hyperscaler - Google - pursuing a direct capacity purchase from the remaining stakeholders. The particulars reported center on commercial and scheduling concerns raised by a potential anchor customer rather than technical or regulatory obstacles.
What is known from the reporting
- Crusoe has paused its plan to build an AI campus in Wyoming that would require electricity on the scale of a city the size of Denver.
- Sources said Crusoe tried but failed to secure customers including Google for the site.
- Google raised concerns about costs and the project timeline under Crusoe's management, according to people familiar with the discussions.
- Black Hills Corp. said it will proceed with the project without Crusoe as the development partner.
- Google is reportedly working to complete an agreement with the remaining partners to buy computing capacity from the site.
All information above reflects details reported by people speaking on the condition of anonymity; no additional parties were named.