AI infrastructure provider Crusoe announced that it has raised $600 million in a Series D funding round, with proceeds from the financing aimed at its vertically integrated, purpose-built AI cloud platform, powered by clean energy. The financing values Crusoe at $2.8 billion.

The financing comes as AI-driven growth is driving a rapid increase in demand for data centers, and for energy infrastructure to power them.. Over the past few months, several major tech companies, such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon, have highlighted increased energy needs to meet the AI-driven growth in data centers as a key challenge to their decarbonization goals. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centers consumed 460TWh in 2022, with this figure projected to possibly double by 2026.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Chase Lochmiller and President Cully Cavness, Colorado-based Crusoe defines its mission as “Align(ing) align the future of computing with the future of the climate.” The company aims to provide “a reliable, scalable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly solution for AI infrastructure,” using clean energy sources to power its AI-optimized data centers.

The company develops energy solutions to mitigate emissions, optimize resources, and incentivize the development of net new low-carbon sources of power. Solutions to power on-site computing infrastructure include Crusoe’s Digital Flare Mitigation technology, which captures natural gas that would otherwise be wasted and flared in the oil fields, and Digital Renewable Optimization, which brings computing workloads to the source of renewable energy production. The company also utilizes stranded and surplus clean and renewable energy that is already being produced, and uses its load to incentivize the development of net new low-carbon generation assets and technologies.

Crusoe has been growing rapidly, with customer count increasing more than 7-fold over the past 12 months. The company currently has 15 GW in development, and is now operating across 9 states and 3 countries.

Crusoe said that it will use the proceeds from the financing to invest in its expansion and growth, including its data centers and Crusoe Cloud, its newly launched high-performance cloud platform tailored for AI and machine learning (ML) workloads.

Chase Lochmiller, CEO and co-founder of Crusoe, said:

“We believe a new approach is needed to power the AI revolution. To reduce complexity, accelerate time-to-value, and support the most demanding AI solutions, customers need a vertically integrated approach. We are able to innovate faster and bring new, state-of-the-art capacity online in a fraction of the time compared to legacy cloud providers while delivering unmatched results for customers, making the promises of AI a reality.”

The Series D funding round was led by Founders Fund, with participation from new and existing investors, including Fidelity, Long Journey Ventures, Mubadala, NVIDIA, Ribbit Capital, and Valor Equity Partners.

Sean Liu, Partner at Founders Fund, said:

“Crusoe is reimagining AI infrastructure from the ground up to meet and exceed organizations’ demands, powering the next wave of innovation in a sustainable way.”