Blue Owl Backs Crusoe in $3.4B JV for 200MW AI Datacenter

Bitcoin mining-turned-AI data center developer Crusoe Energy has secured a financing deal with Blue Owl Capital to construct a 200-megawatt site in Texas, reportedly for use by OpenAI.

On Tuesday, Crusoe announced a $3.4 billion joint venture with alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital (NYSE: OWL) and advisory firm Primary Digital Infrastructure, who will provide investment for the project.

“Under the terms of the fully funded forward takeout, funds managed by Blue Owl’s Real Estate platform and Primary Digital Infrastructure will jointly sponsor the 206 MW, 998,000-square-foot data center, which is being designed, built, and operated by Crusoe,” the companies stated in their announcement.

The joint venture comes three months after Crusoe revealed it was developing a 200 MW data center at the Lancium Clean Campus outside Abilene, Texas. Upon completion, it is anticipated to accommodate up to 100,000 GPUs.

The companies announced that the project is “100% long-term leased to a Fortune 100 hyperscale tenant, with occupancy expected to begin in the first half of 2025.”

The Information reported that the infrastructure would be utilized by Oracle to provide GPU capacity for Microsoft for use by OpenAI.

Crusoe was founded in 2018 with a focus on utilizing flared gas to provide energy capacities and was known for applying that to Bitcoin mining. In 2023, with the rise of generative AI workloads, the company shifted its focus to constructing AI and high-performance computing data centers.