Meta signs AI computing deals with Crusoe for 1.6 gigawatts across Texas and Missouri sites

Meta signs new AI computing deals with data center firm Crusoe, Bloomberg News reports

June 18 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab has secured new agreements to get AI computing power from data center developer Crusoe, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, as it strengthens infrastructure required to support its AI expansion. Meta and Crusoe did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the report, which cited people familiar with the situation. Reuters could not ⁠independently verify the report. Here are some details: Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Meta signs new AI computing deals with data-centre firm Crusoe

Two new sites add roughly 1.6 gigawatts to a build-out where the unit of ambition is now electricity, not chips. Meta has signed new deals to draw computing power from Crusoe, the data-centre developer, adding to the vast and growing pile of infrastructure the company is assembling for its AI ambitions. The agreements cover two sites, in Childress, Texas, and Warrenton, Missouri, and will give Meta roughly 1.6 gigawatts of capacity between them, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter. The figure is the part to dwell on. A gigawatt is the rough output of a large power station, and 1.6 of them dedicated to a single company's computing needs is a measure of how the unit of AI ambition has shifted from chips to electricity. Meta is no longer just buying servers; it is contracting for power at the scale of national grid planning, and doing so across multiple developers at once. Crusoe is the counterparty of the moment. Founded in 2018, the company specialises in building and running large data centres for AI work, and it already has deals with Oracle, Microsoft, and Alphabet's Google for three other campuses. Adding Meta to that roster places Crusoe among the developers the largest AI buyers turn to when they need capacity faster than they can build it themselves. For Meta, the deals are one piece of a much larger and more expensive strategy. Like its Silicon Valley peers, the company has been racing to lock in computing power wherever it can find it, and its single biggest effort is a nearly 4,000-acre campus in Louisiana designed to provide up to five gigawatts of capacity. Against that, the Hyperion project, the Crusoe agreements are an incremental top-up to an already staggering build-out. That build-out is straining the resources around it. Data centres of this size need power and water on a scale that has begun to draw scrutiny from grid operators and communities, and the competition for electricity is now a defining constraint on the industry, the same one visible in operators racing to secure gigawatts across multiple continents. Meta's answer has been to spread its bets across developers and geographies rather than rely on any single site. The spending behind all this is enormous and still climbing. The largest cloud and AI companies are collectively pouring hundreds of billions into infrastructure, and the demand has outrun even the most aggressive forecasts, with some operators renting capacity from unlikely sources to keep up. Meta's Crusoe deals are a small entry in that ledger, but they point in the same direction: secure the power now, at almost any cost, and worry about the returns later. What Meta intends to run on the 1.6 gigawatts is the familiar list, training and serving the AI models and agents the company has reorganised itself around. The capacity is the precondition for the rest of the strategy; without it, the models and the products built on them cannot scale. The shift toward leasing capacity from developers like Crusoe, rather than building every site in-house, is itself a strategic choice. Constructing gigawatt-scale data centres takes years and ties up enormous capital; contracting for capacity that someone else builds and operates lets Meta move faster and spread the construction risk, at the cost of paying a margin to the developer. With demand running ahead of supply, speed has become worth more than ownership, and Crusoe is selling exactly that. Neither Meta nor Crusoe has commented in detail on the terms, and the figures come from people familiar with the arrangements rather than an official announcement. What the deals confirm is the trajectory: a company whose future depends on AI is buying the electricity to power it by the gigawatt, from whoever can deliver it fastest.

Meta signs new AI computing deals with data center firm Crusoe: Report

Meta is under contract to buy computing capacity from Crusoe at two data centers, which are ⁠located in Childress, Texas, and Warrenton, Missouri, according to the report. Meta Platforms has secured new agreements to get AI computing power from data center developer Crusoe, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, as it strengthens infrastructure required to support its AI expansion. Meta and Crusoe did not immediately respond ⁠to Reuters' ⁠requests for comment on the report, which cited people familiar with the situation. Reuters could not independently verify the report. Here are some details: Meta is under contract to buy computing capacity from Crusoe at two data centers, which are ⁠located in Childress, Texas, and Warrenton, Missouri, according to the report. Meta is set to ⁠get roughly 1.6 gigawatts of capacity combined across the two sites, the report said. A single gigawatt is enough to roughly power 750,000 U.S. homes. The Bloomberg report said that it was not immediately clear how much Meta will be spending or when the computing capacity will be delivered. Meta, like its Big Tech peers, has been pouring billions of ⁠dollars into AI data centers and computing power, as demand continues to outstrip supply. Meta has pledged to invest $600 billion in U.S. infrastructure and jobs over the next three years, as it builds out massive data centers to power CEO Mark Zuckerberg's aggressive bets on AI agent technologies.

Meta secures AI computing power from Crusoe data centers - Bloomberg By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Meta Platforms Inc. has secured new agreements to obtain AI computing power from data center developer Crusoe, adding to the infrastructure needed for its artificial intelligence expansion. The social media company has contracted to purchase computing capacity from Crusoe at two data center locations, according to a report from Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter. The facilities are located in Childress, Texas, and Warrenton, Missouri. Meta is set to receive approximately 1.6 gigawatts of capacity combined across both sites, the people said. One gigawatt can power up to 750,000 US homes at any given time. The financial terms of the agreements and the timeline for when the computing capacity will be delivered were not immediately clear. The people requested anonymity because the discussions are private. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.