Google Buys Crusoe’s Troubled Wyoming Data Center, Plans $17 Billion Campus
Google bought Crusoe's unfinished Wyoming data center and plans a $17 billion buildout after cost and schedule concerns stalled the 10 GW campus project.
Summary
On November 6, 2026, eight-year-old Denver data center developer Crusoe, recently valued at $30.9 billion, confirmed it sold its unfinished southeastern Wyoming project to Google. Crusoe had failed to secure Google as a customer, while Google reportedly raised concerns about costs and construction timing. Crusoe and Blackstone-backed infrastructure company Tallgrass announced the campus in 2025, targeting 10 gigawatts of eventual power capacity. Google did not disclose the purchase price but plans to invest $17 billion in development.
The takeover highlights the equipment, power, budget, scheduling and local opposition pressures confronting independent developers. Google still has Crusoe building another facility near Amarillo, Texas. The Wyoming sale surfaced in June 2026, before Crusoe raised $3.9 billion in September. Crusoe leases space to customers supplying GPUs, rents its own GPUs and sells AI inference compute. Its Abilene campus serves Oracle and OpenAI, while a neighboring 900-megawatt Microsoft campus expects its first building in mid-2027. Meta is also a customer, and Jane Street reportedly signed a $13 billion, five-year cloud contract. CEO Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness founded Crusoe as a cryptocurrency miner using otherwise flared natural gas. Crusoe added three directors in September, including 2021 investor JB Straubel, Redwood Materials founder and Tesla director, and later became the first customer of his energy-storage business.
Positives
- Google plans to invest $17 billion to complete and develop the southeastern Wyoming data center campus.
- Crusoe raised $3.9 billion in September 2026 despite the Wyoming project’s cost and scheduling problems.
- Google continues working with Crusoe on a separate data center near Amarillo, Texas.
- Oracle, OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta remain Crusoe customers, while Jane Street reportedly signed a $13 billion, five-year cloud deal.
- Microsoft’s neighboring 900-megawatt Abilene campus expects its first building to begin operating in mid-2027.
Risks & concerns
- Crusoe failed to secure Google as the Wyoming campus customer and instead sold Google the unfinished development.
- Google reportedly raised concerns about the project’s cost and construction schedule under Crusoe’s management.
- Equipment shortages, limited power access and local opposition threaten timely, on-budget delivery of massive independent data center projects.
- Google did not disclose what it paid Crusoe for the unfinished Wyoming campus.