Crusoe Raises $3B at a $30B Valuation

Crusoe, a company building data centers for hyperscalers, has raised a new $3 billion funding round at a $30 billion valuation. Bloomberg reported this citing sources.

Crusoe's clients include Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI. The round was led by Atreides Management and Valor Equity Partners, with participants including Mubadala Capital, the asset management arm of the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.

A Sharp Rise in Valuation

The new cash infusion came just ten months after the previous round: last October the company raised $1.38 billion at a $10 billion valuation. Its valuation has thus tripled in less than a year.

Behind this rapid growth lies a major contract: Crusoe recently signed a five-year, $13 billion cloud agreement with quantitative trading firm Jane Street. Under the terms of the deal, Crusoe will supply the client with graphics processors and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

From Gas to Data Centers

The company's history is emblematic of the current tech cycle. Crusoe launched in 2018 as a cryptocurrency mining operator running on associated gas that would otherwise simply be flared off at oil fields. Since then the firm has pivoted toward AI and cloud services, and is now known primarily for building hyperscale data center campuses for clients such as Oracle and OpenAI.

The company shows no signs of slowing down. According to Axios, last month Crusoe met with investment bankers, including from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, to discuss a possible near-term IPO.

Source: TechCrunch