Crusoe, the Denver-based AI data center startup that recently raised $3.9 billion, has walked away from a planned $1.25 billion purchase of stationary gas turbines from fellow Denver company Boom Supersonic, ending what had been positioned as a flagship commercial debut for Boom's new power business.
The deal would have made Crusoe the first customer for Boom's Superpower turbines, a line of natural gas-fired stationary power plants derived from the engine technology Boom is developing for its supersonic passenger jet, Overture. Under the original agreement, Crusoe was set to buy 29 of the 42-megawatt turbines, with first deliveries expected in 2027. Instead, the partnership has unraveled, according to Boom CEO Blake Scholl.
In a post on X on Friday, Scholl congratulated Crusoe founders Cully Cavness and Chase Lochmiller on the company's recent fundraising, while confirming the companies were no longer moving ahead together on the turbine launch. Scholl said Boom still has other customers in its pipeline and insisted the business remains on track despite the loss of its first marquee buyer.
"Boom will be delivering about 250MW of Superpowers next year to other sites, and we're targeting 1GW in 2028," Scholl wrote. "We're grateful for the help Crusoe gave us in shaping Superpower and continue cheering for their successes. The future is long, and we look forward to potentially teaming up if/when turbines become part of their primary power mix."
Scholl's original post included a more pointed line that he later removed: "The TL/DR is that turbines are no longer part of Crusoe's near term primary power mix at Abilene/etc., so a launch partnership just didn't make sense." That phrasing suggested a deeper mismatch between Crusoe's evolving power strategy and Boom's attempt to commercialize its turbine technology through AI infrastructure demand.
Crusoe pushed back on the idea that it was abandoning turbines altogether. In an email, spokesperson Andrew Schmitt said the company's energy plans "haven't changed" and that it still intends to use turbines, "just not Boom's."
"We build AI factories from the power up, and we're bringing new campuses online across the country, powered by innovative energy sources," Schmitt said. "As our portfolio grows, we stay flexible, choosing the energy solutions that are right for each site as its needs evolve — including turbines, along with wind, solar, batteries and the grid. While Boom has been a great partner, the partnership isn't the right fit today. We wish them well."
The split matters because Crusoe has become one of the most closely watched builders in the AI infrastructure boom. Founded in 2018 as a bitcoin miner that used excess natural gas from oil fields, the company has since repositioned itself as a major developer of AI data centers, including a large campus in Abilene, Texas, that provides computing power to OpenAI. Its growth has made it a bellwether for how power-hungry AI systems are reshaping industrial energy demand.
Crusoe's initial 1.2-gigawatt data center in Abilene, built for Oracle and OpenAI, is powered by the grid, according to the company. A gas-turbine power plant on the site is used only for backup power. Crusoe is also building a 900-megawatt data center in Abilene for Microsoft, which the company says will be powered by on-site gas turbines.
For Boom, losing Crusoe as a launch customer is a setback. The company raised $300 million last year, largely to commercialize the stationary power business, which Scholl has described as a way to generate profits that could help fund development of Overture. The strategy tied Boom's aviation ambitions to the surging demand for dependable power at AI data centers, where operators are racing to secure electricity amid grid constraints and long interconnection timelines.
Boom's Superpower turbines share about 80% of their parts with Symphony, the airborne engine under development for Overture, giving the company a technical and manufacturing bridge between aviation and power generation. But the collapse of the Crusoe deal shows how difficult it can be to turn that concept into a stable commercial pipeline, especially when large data center operators are still refining their own energy mix site by site.
Scholl could not be reached for comment before publication. TechCrunch said it would update the story if he responds.
For now, the breakup leaves Boom searching for proof that its power business can scale without the customer that was supposed to validate it first, while Crusoe continues to expand across the U.S. with a more flexible approach to how its AI campuses are powered.