Powering the Future of AI, Responsibly: Our Next Chapter at Crusoe
By Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness
Seven years ago, we founded Crusoe with a fundamental understanding: energy is at the core of computing, and how we source that energy matters. We envisioned that the burgeoning demand for high-performance computing could be met in a way that not only benefited humanity but also minimized environmental impact.
From the outset, Crusoe has been an energy-first innovator of computing infrastructure. We flipped the script by bringing data centers out to the sites of energy production rather than the traditional approach of bringing power to the data centers. We pioneered the use of stranded natural gas to power energy-intensive compute workloads that would otherwise be wasted and flared; often in extremely remote areas. Recognizing opportunities where others saw waste, we turned liabilities into valuable resources while also: 1) reducing methane emissions; and 2) taking energy-intensive workloads off the grid. Over the years, we've championed this concept by integrating additional clean energy sources as prominent components to power our AI infrastructure.
Today marks a pivotal moment in Crusoe’s story. With the pending divestiture of Crusoe’s bitcoin mining operations, which includes our Digital Flare Mitigation (DFM) business, to NYDIG (see full announcement here), Crusoe is entering a new chapter, but energy and how we think about the environmental impact of energy remain core to our business. Moving forward, Crusoe continues to grow a vertically integrated AI infrastructure company building AI-optimized data centers, and offering a highly scalable AI cloud platform—starting first and foremost with how we power these solutions. This moment is a testament to the strength of our energy-first model and our belief that it is a core differentiator in our business, even as the company changes to meet evolving AI infrastructure needs and challenges.
With AI’s increased power requirements, and the short- to medium- term strain it is expected to place on the grid in some regions, energy innovation has never been more important or more relevant to avoiding energy shortages that may stifle or impede important AI-driven innovations. We remain unwavering in our commitment to optimizing energy resources to power AI responsibly. Today’s market urgently demands the rapid delivery of AI infrastructure and meeting this increased demand responsibly necessitates a pragmatic approach. There is no perfect energy solution for the industry. The “perfect energy solution” is instead the right optimized mix of energy offerings based on each site, the needs of each customer and strategies to minimize long-term environmental impact.
In 2018, Crusoe filled a need in the marketplace for an “energy-first” approach to high-performance computing. Our team has grown from two of us on a long hike to hundreds of colleagues across multiple states and around the world. As we’ve grown, ingenuity, creativity and commitment to optimizing our energy resources has remained who we are at our core – and it’s who we will continue to be as we scale our vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform.
We believe that meeting the increased demands of AI compute requires leveraging a diverse energy portfolio – and relentlessly pursuing the most energy efficient and sustainable option even if that option is not the most straight-forward. We pursue the hard path because it is the right path. In some cases this means investing in innovative technologies like carbon sequestration, small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) or novel battery technologies paired with renewables. These frontier technologies are not the easiest path but hold potential to transform the carbon intensity of computing infrastructure if deployed at scale.
We seek to balance the industry’s need to rapidly deploy necessary infrastructure for today's AI development while simultaneously building pathways for greater integration of decarbonization and renewable energy sources in the future – a strategic approach to meet present needs while building towards a cleaner tomorrow.
What started with capturing waste methane in the oilfield to power Bitcoin mining has evolved into finding new and creative ways to power AI data centers across all types of energy. But at our core we remain committed to the same model: an energy-first approach to power advanced computing. We are actively exploring new partnerships and technologies to accelerate the integration of clean and renewable energy into a significant portion of our current pipeline of 10+ GW of AI data center projects.
As we build out AI infrastructure across the globe, Crusoe’s energy-first approach becomes even more critical. By powering advancements in AI, we are enabling innovations poised to benefit humanity as well as the environment through breakthroughs in technologies for energy, efficiency and mitigation.
Our approach to environmental excellence remains a process of improvement through innovation, not an absolutist approach. We turn the dial because we know there is no switch to flip. Better is better even if it isn’t yet perfect; by consistently pushing for better we will ultimately reach our collective goals.
We are incredibly excited about our path forward. We are building a future where energy is at the foundation of the infrastructure for intelligence and data centers will be built in locations where we can access low cost, clean and abundant energy resources.
Thank you to our incredible team, partners, customers, and community who have been with us on this journey. We are just getting started.
