News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
Crusoe and Lancium plan to build a new AI data center in Childress, Texas
As w.media's Europe and Americas correspondent, Conor covers the data center industry in the western hemisphere. Conor's decade long experience spans digital infrastructure, software, cybersecurity, telecom, biotech, and construction. Crusoe, an AI factory company in partnership with Lancium, an energy technology and infrastructure company, is planning to develop a 1 GW AI data center campus in Childress, Texas. The facility will come up on a 270-acre site, with construction scheduled to begin in Q1 2026. The grid-connected facility is being built to support the AI computing requirements of a leading hyperscale technology company. According to a press release, the companies are applying the same development model used for their AI data center campus in Abilene, Texas. Under the agreement, Lancium will own the land, secure the power interconnection, and manage the site's energy infrastructure while Crusoe will design, build, and operate the data center under the partnership. Chase Lochmiller, Co-founder and CEO, Crusoe, said, "This campus represents a major milestone in Crusoe's deep commitment to the state of Texas, working with Lancium again, in the same partnership model we built together in Abilene, made Childress an easy choice for our next site." Michael McNamara, CEO, Lancium, said, "Childress is a natural next step in our partnership with Crusoe, we are deeply committed to working with local stakeholders to advance a model of development that addresses the broader needs of the community we will share for a very long time." The Childress data center campus will incorporate behind-the-meter solar generation and battery energy storage to support on-site power needs and reduce reliance on the transmission grid. The facility will use a closed-loop, non-evaporative liquid cooling system designed to minimize water consumption. The project builds on Lancium and Crusoe's existing data center developments in Texas, including the 1.2 GW campus in Abilene and a second 900 MW campus under construction on adjacent Lancium-owned property.
AI data center builder Crusoe reportedly raising $3B at $30B valuation
AI data center builder Crusoe reportedly raising $3B at $30B valuation Data center builder Crusoe Inc. is reportedly in talks to raise a $3 billion funding round. Bloomberg on Thursday cited sources as saying that the deal could value the company at $30 billion. That's about three times what Crusoe was worth last year. The report didn't name the investors who may participate in the new raise, but late-stage rounds often draw contributions from existing backers. Crusoe's last funding round included the participation of Nvidia Corp., Salesforce Ventures and more than a dozen others. The company has raised a total of $2.77 billion to date. Crusoe builds data centers for major tech firms such as Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and OpenAI Group PBC. According to Bloomberg, Meta Platforms Inc. is also a customer. The social media giant has reportedly signed contracts to use two Crusoe data centers undergoing construction in Texas and Missouri. The startup's flagship project is a 1.2 gigawatt data center cluster that it's building for OpenAI. The Abilene, Texas site is the ChatGPT developer's largest Stargate campus. In June, Crusoe disclosed that two of the eight buildings on the site are operational. The company assembles customer data centers from prefabricated modules. Each module ships with server racks, power management components and cooling equipment. Crusoe also helps customers with tasks such as connecting a newly built data center to the grid. The company ships its hardware with a management platform called Command Center. According to Crusoe, the software can detect when an AI server fails and automatically replace it with a spare machine. Command Center uses Kubernetes and Slurm, an open-source infrastructure automation tool, to manage hardware resources. The company says that its one-stop-shop approach significantly speeds up infrastructure projects. Crusoe claims that it can build a new data center in months instead of the years the task often requires. Besides building infrastructure for other companies, Crusoe also operates its own AI-optimized public cloud. The platform offers a half dozen graphics card models from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Companies with latency-sensitive workloads can commission miniature cloud facilities called Edge Zones that Crusoe builds near end-users. In March, the company opened a factory that will make the prefabricated modules from which its data centers are assembled. Crusoe stated at the time that the plant would ship its first modules in the current quarter. It's possible the company will use the $3 billion funding round that it's reportedly raising to ramp up production.
