Crusoe Secures $1.375 Billion for AI Infrastructure Development with OpenAI

Crusoe raised $1.375 billion for AI infrastructure development.

Formerly engaged in Bitcoin mining, Crusoe has raised $1.375 billion in a Series E funding round led by Mubadala Capital and Valor Equity Partners.

The firm will use the funds to scale its vertically integrated data center infrastructure to serve the AI sector.

In September, Crusoe launched the first phase of its flagship campus in Abilene, Texas, as part of a partnership with the Stargate project—a joint venture between OpenAI, Softbank, and Oracle. Under the initiative announced in January by U.S. President Donald Trump, $500 billion is to be invested in AI infrastructure over four years, with an initial $100 billion investment.

The data center in Abilene has a projected capacity of 1.2 GW. The facility plans to house up to 400,000 powerful AI chips from Nvidia.

Crusoe also operates data centers in Norway and Iceland, serving the high-performance computing (HPC) cloud service Crusoe Cloud. In July, the firm announced the construction of an AI campus in Wyoming with Tallgrass, with a capacity of 1.8 GW.

A Strategic Shift

Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness founded Crusoe in 2018 as a Bitcoin mining company. The firm mined cryptocurrency using containerized modular units powered by flared natural gas from oil extraction.

In 2019, the startup raised $4.5 million in a seed round with participation from venture firms of the Winklevoss twins and Peter Thiel. By the end of the year, existing shareholders and new investors increased their investment in the project by $70 million.

In 2022, the company closed a Series C funding round amounting to $350 million. The financing was aimed at expanding the mining business and launching the Crusoe Cloud platform. At that time, the firm acquired modular systems manufacturer Easter-Owens Electric and purchased 11 similar units from bankrupt Compute North.

In October 2024, Crusoe formed a joint venture with Blue Owl Capital and Primary Digital Infrastructure. The $3.4 billion project began constructing the HPC-focused Lancium Clean Campus data center in Abilene. The facility was intended for long-term lease to an unnamed Fortune 100 company, later revealed to be Oracle.

In March 2025, the company sold its Bitcoin mining division to NYDIG. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. At that time, the enterprise managed over 425 modular units with a combined capacity of more than 250 MW, employing about 135 staff. Its operations spanned oil fields in seven U.S. states and Argentina.

A Growing Trend

The shift of Bitcoin miners towards AI gained momentum after the halving in April 2024. Amid declining profitability of digital gold production, cryptocurrency miners increasingly explored business opportunities in the high-margin sector, which also faced a capacity shortage.

One of the largest deals in this direction was the acquisition in July by AI hyperscaler CoreWeave of mining center operator Core Scientific for $9 billion.

In August, Google increased its stake in TeraWulf to 14% by expanding financial guarantees to $3.2 billion. In September, a miner announced raising $3 billion for data center construction.

Approximately $193 million was invested in AI computing by IREN. CleanSpark announced a shift from “pure mining” to high-performance computing. According to media reports, MARA Holdings is considering entering the AI infrastructure market. Alongside Cango, these three firms are part of the “50 EH/s club,” collectively controlling about 20% of Bitcoin’s network power.

In August, experts at GoMining predicted a wave of institutional investments in Bitcoin mining amid the AI computing boom.