• Crusoe Energy has raised $686M of a planned $818M funding round to expand its AI-focused data center infrastructure, per an SEC filing.
• Originally a cryptocurrency firm, Crusoe has pivoted to AI infrastructure, securing major deals with Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI.

Crusoe Energy, a startup transitioning from cryptocurrency to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, is reportedly raising $818 million in new funding, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The filing shows that Crusoe has already secured $686 million from 70 investors, with plans to close the remaining amount.

“A company at our stage of growth is always talking to investors,” a Crusoe spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Earlier this year, The Financial Times reported that Crusoe was in talks to raise $500 million in a round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Felicis Ventures. However, the appetite among investors appears to have grown, potentially increasing the company’s valuation beyond the previously rumored $3 billion—double its last valuation.

If successful, this latest fundraising round would bring Crusoe’s total funding to approximately $1.5 billion, combining equity and debt. In 2022, the company raised $200 million in debt, using its data center chips as collateral to acquire AI processors.

Founded in 2018 as a cryptocurrency venture, Crusoe initially utilized flared natural gas to power its operations. With the rise of AI, the company pivoted to providing high-performance computing and AI infrastructure. Recently, Crusoe announced a $3.4 billion joint venture with asset manager Blue Owl Capital to construct a data center in Abilene, Texas. The facility, expected to serve Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI, reflects Crusoe’s strategy to meet the growing demand for AI-related computing resources.

The boom in AI-driven infrastructure has also attracted other players. CoreWeave, a GPU infrastructure provider, has reportedly amassed $12.7 billion in funding, while Lambda Labs secured $500 million in financing earlier this year. Nonprofit Voltage Park and Together AI have also made substantial investments in GPU-backed data centers.

However, the rapid expansion of data centers raises environmental concerns. Research firm IDC estimates global data center electricity consumption will more than double by 2028, with emissions potentially reaching 2.5 billion metric tons by 2030.

Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller, addressing these concerns, suggested that AI itself could mitigate its environmental impact.

“There’s all these gripes about AI’s energy usage, [but] the solution to AI’s energy usage is AI,” Lochmiller told SiliconAngle.

“AI is the tool that we’ve been looking for that’s going to be able to drive these scientific breakthroughs that we need to achieve low-cost, sustainably-powered futures.”