📰 Key Takeaways

Crusoe (a Denver-based AI data center startup that recently raised $3.9B) has terminated its plan to work with fellow Denver company Boom Supersonic on stationary power plants. Crusoe, founded in 2018, started out running Bitcoin mining operations on stranded natural gas from oilfields before pivoting to become an AI data center giant, including a massive campus in Abilene, Texas powering OpenAI. Boom Supersonic’s core business is developing the Overture supersonic jet, but last year it branched into a new venture, adapting a derivative of its Symphony jet engine into a stationary natural gas turbine generator called Superpower (the two share about 80% of their parts), rated at 42 megawatts per unit. Crusoe was originally the launch customer for this turbine business, signing a $1.25B contract to buy 29 Superpower turbines, with the first batch originally slated for delivery in 2027. But Boom CEO Blake Scholl confirmed the partnership has fallen through, posting on X that turbines are no longer part of Crusoe’s near-term power plans at sites like Abilene, making the launch partnership no longer a fit. He also revealed that Boom will deliver roughly 250 megawatts of Superpower units to other customers next year, with a goal of hitting 1,000 megawatts (1GW) by 2028. Crusoe spokesperson Andrew Schmitt confirmed to TechCrunch that the two companies are no longer working together, explaining that Crusoe flexibly chooses power solutions per campus based on need — including turbines, wind, solar, batteries, and the grid. Currently, Crusoe’s 1.2-gigawatt data center in Abilene, built for Oracle and OpenAI, runs on grid power, with a gas turbine plant on-site serving only as backup; meanwhile, a 900-megawatt data center under construction there for Microsoft will run on on-site gas turbines. Losing its launch customer is a setback for Boom, which raised $300 million last year with plans to use profits from the power plant business to help fund its jet development.

💬 JudyAI Lab Take

This story matters because it exposes just how uncertain “power supply” really is for AI data centers — even a signed $1.25B turbine order slated for 2027 delivery can get scrapped once demand shifts. Crusoe went from Bitcoin mining operation to an AI data center giant powering OpenAI, Oracle, and Microsoft, and now it’s choosing to swap out a single-vendor turbine commitment for a diversified mix of grid power, wind, solar, and batteries — a sign that power strategy for AI infrastructure is iterating fast, with nobody willing to bet on one single approach.

For AI builders, this is a reminder that the biggest bottleneck in the AI wave might not be models or chips — it’s the flexibility and delivery risk of energy infrastructure. When compute demand grows faster than hardware delivery timelines, even the biggest data center operators have to keep adjusting their power mix, spreading bets across multiple options. That’s also why “supply chain substitutability” is becoming a core design principle in AI infrastructure planning, not just a secondary consideration in vendor selection.

Something to think about: next time you’re evaluating the infrastructure dependencies of any AI project, it’s worth asking — if this vendor or approach falls through, what’s the backup path?

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