March 27 (Reuters) - AI data center startup Crusoe said on Friday it will build a new 900-megawatt campus to run artificial intelligence workloads for Microsoft MSFT.O in Texas, as tech companies aggressively expand generative AI capacity.
Billions of dollars are being spent on data centers to meet the massive computing requirements for GenAI. Microsoft alone reported $37.5 billion in capital expenditure for the quarter ended December 31, with about two-thirds going toward computing chips for services like Copilot and ChatGPT.
Located next to Crusoe's existing AI facilities in Abilene, Texas, the new campus will bring the site's total projected capacity to 2.1 gigawatts. On average, one gigawatt is enough to power 750,000 homes.
Microsoft struck an agreement with Crusoe to occupy the site after the startup's talks with Oracle ORCL.N and OpenAI fell through, according to a Bloomberg News report earlier this week. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters at the time OpenAI's existing agreement with Oracle is still on track.
Crusoe did not share the financial terms of the deal, but industry executives have estimated 1 GW of computing power can cost around $50 billion.
While Oracle and OpenAI are developing the adjacent Stargate campus, Microsoft’s entry cements Abilene as a hub for AI training and inference.
The first building on the new campus is expected to open in mid-2027, with the site supplied by its own power plant to increase grid resilience.
The facility will use a "closed-loop" cooling system to address the high thermal demands of AI chips. Such systems recirculate water through radiators to eliminate waste from evaporation.
(Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)
((Anhata.Rooprai@thomsonreuters.com))
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