Crusoe

AI Infrastructure · Data Centers · Cloud Computing

Acquisition

Google buys Crusoe's unfinished Wyoming AI data center, commits $17B

Hyperscalers increasingly prefer owning AI infrastructure outright rather than trusting third-party developers to deliver on time and budget.

• Google acquired Crusoe's unfinished data center site in southeastern Wyoming, taking over development itself a day after pledging $17 billion to build out the campus.
• Crusoe is an eight-year-old Denver-based AI infrastructure developer that leases data center space and GPUs and sells AI compute capacity, recently valued at $30.9 billion.
• The site was launched in 2025 with Blackstone-backed Tallgrass Energy and was meant to scale to 10 gigawatts; Google will now build it with Tallgrass, Black Hills Energy, AEP and Related Digital, including a 702-megawatt fuel-cell plant with carbon capture.
• Financial terms of the site transfer itself were not disclosed; the $17 billion figure is Google's own commitment to develop the campus, not the price it paid Crusoe.
• Crusoe was reportedly pushed off the Wyoming project in June after Google raised cost and timeline concerns and failed to sign on as a customer, even as Crusoe went on to raise $3.9 billion at a $30.9 billion valuation in September.
• Crusoe says it still has more than 6 gigawatts contracted and over 40 gigawatts in its pipeline, and remains Google's developer for a separate campus near Amarillo, Texas.
• The handover lands amid a harsher political climate for data centers: voters rejected 40 of 41 local data center ballot measures in this week's elections.
• The reversal signals hyperscalers shifting from leasing AI infrastructure built by intermediaries to directly owning construction and power generation to control cost and delivery risk.