Curated by THEOUTPOST
On Wed, 30 Oct, 4:02 PM UTC
2 Sources
[1]
Peter Thiel's Founders Fund Leads $500M Fundraise In Waste Gas-Powered AI Cloud Start-Up - Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC) Common units of fractional undivided beneficial interest (ARCA:BTC)
Crusoe Energy, a data center startup, has secured a $500 million equity investment led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund to expand its artificial intelligence infrastructure. What Happened: The investment round values Crusoe at approximately $3 billion, more than double its valuation two years ago, reported the Financial Times on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the deal. The company, founded by Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness in 2018, is among the fast-growing "neocloud" industry that provides outsourced cloud computing for other tech companies to build AI. The neocloud industry has been attracting significant financial backing from Silicon Valley and Wall Street investors to fund the acquisition of NVIDIA Corp's NVDA powerful AI chips. Crusoe's investment round coincides with its recent $3.4 billion deal with Blue Owl Capital to finance the construction of a new data center in Texas, which will be leased to Oracle Corp ORCL. Crusoe Energy supports sustainability by using waste natural gas from oilfields to power its data centers, helping to cut greenhouse gas emissions while fueling AI and cloud computing. Crusoe Energy did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment. See Also: Bitcoin Breaks $70K, Ethereum and Dogecoin Rise Amid Stock Rally Ahead Of 'Mag 7' Earnings: Analyst Says Current Spike Driven By 'Binance Whales' Why It Matters: Thiel, a prominent figure in the tech and investment world, has been actively involved in the cryptocurrency and AI sectors. His Founders Fund has made significant investments in these areas, including a $200 million investment in Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD in 2023. Thiel has also been vocal about his skepticism regarding Bitcoin's future growth, expressing doubts about significant price growth and expressing regret for not purchasing more of the cryptocurrency. Despite this, his Founders Fund has continued to make bold moves in the crypto market, signifying a renewed interest in token investments among institutional investors. Read Next: Elon Musk's 'Doge-Flex' Pose Sends Dogecoin, First Neiro On Ethereum Soaring Image Via Pixabay This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
[2]
Peter Thiel's Founders Fund leads $500mn fundraise for AI cloud group Crusoe Energy
Data centre start-up Crusoe Energy is raising as much as $500mn of equity capital from investors including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund to expand its facilities that provide the infrastructure powering the AI boom. The fundraise will value Crusoe at about $3bn, more than double its valuation two years ago, according to three people with knowledge of the deal. It is the latest fledgling company whose fortunes have surged as a result of the significant spending on AI following the release of ChatGPT in late 2022. Founders Fund, which has invested in Crusoe since its seed round in 2019 and was also an early backer of OpenAI, will lead the new funding round, according to three people close to the deal talks. Felicis Ventures, another existing Crusoe investor, will also participate, the people said. Crusoe is among a fast-growing group of start-ups in a burgeoning industry of "neoclouds" -- data centre companies that provide outsourced cloud computing for other tech groups to build AI. The industry has attracted vast financial backing from Silicon Valley and Wall Street investors to fund the acquisition of tens of thousands of Nvidia's powerful AI chips -- known as graphics processing units. These can be placed in data centres and leased to tech companies such as Microsoft and Meta. CoreWeave, the largest neocloud company, has raised more than $12bn in debt and equity over a series of deals in the past 18 months. Crusoe's investment round comes at the same time as it announced it had signed a $3.4bn deal with Blue Owl Capital earlier this month, an alternative asset manager, to finance construction of a new data centre in Texas. The facility will be leased to Oracle, which has a deal to provide computing power to Microsoft and OpenAI. Venture capital firms have rushed to invest in a technology many believe will be as significant as the internet or mobile technology. More than 40 per cent of the $93bn spent by VCs in the first half of this year went to AI start-ups, according to private markets data company PitchBook. The clamour to back cutting-edge AI models, such as OpenAI, Elon Musk's xAI and Anthropic, has rapidly pushed up their valuations, with OpenAI priced at $150bn earlier this month. Many venture funds are instead looking at investing in either infrastructure to support AI, or applications which use it, in the hope they can find better value deals. Crusoe was founded by quantitative trader Chase Lochmiller and energy investment banker Cully Cavness in 2018 to set up data centre modules that could harvest waste gases from oilfields and use them to power energy-intensive computing such as bitcoin mining and AI. The company switched its focus to creating more permanent data centre facilities in around 2020, acquiring large volumes of AI chips from Nvidia and leasing its cloud computing technology to companies building AI models. Late last year, Crusoe raised $200mn in debt using its chips as collateral from New York investment firm Upper90. The capital was used to buy thousands more of Nvidia's H100 GPUs. Crusoe, Founders Fund and Felicis Ventures declined to comment.
Share
Share
Copy Link
Crusoe Energy, a data center startup, has raised $500 million in equity investment led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. The funding round values the company at $3 billion, highlighting the growing interest in AI infrastructure and sustainable computing solutions.
Crusoe Energy, a data center startup founded in 2018 by Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness, has secured a significant $500 million equity investment led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. This latest funding round values the company at approximately $3 billion, more than doubling its valuation from two years ago 12.
Crusoe Energy is part of the rapidly growing "neocloud" industry, which provides outsourced cloud computing services for tech companies building AI applications. This sector has been attracting substantial financial backing from both Silicon Valley and Wall Street investors, primarily to fund the acquisition of NVIDIA's powerful AI chips, known as graphics processing units (GPUs) 2.
What sets Crusoe Energy apart is its commitment to sustainability. The company utilizes waste natural gas from oilfields to power its data centers, effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions while fueling AI and cloud computing operations. This innovative approach addresses both the growing demand for AI infrastructure and environmental concerns 1.
Coinciding with this investment round, Crusoe Energy recently announced a $3.4 billion deal with Blue Owl Capital to finance the construction of a new data center in Texas. This facility will be leased to Oracle Corporation, which has an agreement to provide computing power to Microsoft and OpenAI 12.
The funding round saw participation from existing investors, including Felicis Ventures. Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, which has been involved with Crusoe since its seed round in 2019, led the investment. This move aligns with the broader trend of venture capital firms rushing to invest in AI-related technologies, with over 40% of the $93 billion spent by VCs in the first half of this year going to AI startups 2.
Initially founded to set up data center modules that could harvest waste gases from oilfields for bitcoin mining and AI computing, Crusoe shifted its focus around 2020 to creating more permanent data center facilities. The company has been acquiring large volumes of AI chips from NVIDIA and leasing its cloud computing technology to companies developing AI models 2.
This substantial investment in Crusoe Energy reflects the growing importance of AI infrastructure in the tech industry. As companies like Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI continue to develop and expand their AI capabilities, the demand for powerful, efficient, and sustainable computing solutions is expected to rise 2.
The neocloud industry, exemplified by companies like Crusoe Energy and CoreWeave, is positioning itself to meet this demand. With CoreWeave having raised over $12 billion in debt and equity over the past 18 months, it's clear that investors see significant potential in this sector 2.
As AI continues to evolve and integrate into various aspects of technology and business, companies like Crusoe Energy are likely to play a crucial role in shaping the future of computing infrastructure, balancing the need for powerful AI capabilities with sustainable practices.
Reference
[2]
Financial Times News
|Peter Thiel's Founders Fund leads $500mn fundraise for AI cloud group Crusoe EnergyCrusoe, an AI infrastructure provider, has secured $600 million in Series D funding, valuing the company at $2.8 billion. The company also announced the general availability of Crusoe Cloud, a high-performance platform tailored for AI and machine learning workloads.
5 Sources
5 Sources
Crusoe Energy, known for converting flared gas into electricity for Bitcoin mining, has sold its mining operation to NYDIG to concentrate on the growing AI infrastructure market.
2 Sources
2 Sources
Crusoe Energy Systems, Blue Owl Capital, and Primary Digital Infrastructure announce a joint venture to construct a large-scale AI data center campus in Abilene, Texas, capable of housing up to 100,000 GPUs.
2 Sources
2 Sources
Elon Musk's AI company xAI raises $6 billion in Series C funding, with plans to expand its Colossus supercomputer and develop advanced AI models to compete with industry leaders.
14 Sources
14 Sources
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has raised $6.6 billion in a historic funding round, with investments from tech giants and venture capital firms. The AI startup's valuation has now reached $157 billion, cementing its position as one of the most valuable private companies in the world.
3 Sources
3 Sources
The Outpost is a comprehensive collection of curated artificial intelligence software tools that cater to the needs of small business owners, bloggers, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, marketers, writers, and researchers.
© 2025 TheOutpost.AI All rights reserved