Crusoe Ends $1.25 Billion Plan to Buy Boom Turbines for AI Data Centers
AI data-center developer Crusoe will no longer buy the stationary turbines it had planned to purchase from Boom Supersonic. The companies had arranged a $1.25 billion deal for 29 of Boom’s 42-megawatt Superpower units, with initial deliveries expected in 2027. Boom chief executive Blake Scholl disclosed that the launch partnership had ended, and Crusoe confirmed to TechCrunch that the two are no longer doing business together.
The cancellation changes a specific power procurement plan, not every energy strategy Crusoe is pursuing. Scholl said turbines are no longer part of the company’s near-term primary power mix at its Abilene sites and elsewhere, so a launch arrangement no longer fit. Crusoe’s response emphasized flexibility across energy sources and left open the possibility of using turbines in other circumstances. Neither company supplied a detailed financial account of the ended contract.
A launch customer steps away
Boom developed the Superpower stationary turbine as a new business alongside its work on a supersonic passenger aircraft. TechCrunch says the power unit shares about 80% of its components with the engine Boom is designing for that aircraft. Crusoe was due to be the first customer for the stationary product, making its departure more consequential for Boom than an ordinary lost order from an established product line.
Scholl said Boom still has other customers in its pipeline. He stated that the company expects to deliver about 250 megawatts of Superpower capacity to other sites next year and is targeting one gigawatt in 2028. These are the chief executive’s forward-looking plans, not completed deliveries. TechCrunch could not obtain an additional response from him before publication, so the report offers no independent detail on those other customers or how the original Crusoe production slots will be filled.
Boom raised $300 million last year, largely to commercialize the stationary turbine business, the article says. Scholl had previously described using profits from that venture to support development of the Overture aircraft. Losing the announced launch customer therefore affects a plan with implications beyond one data-center contract. The source does not quantify Boom’s financial loss from the cancellation or say whether any money had already changed hands.
Crusoe’s power plans are not uniform
Crusoe has grown from a bitcoin-mining business using surplus gas from oil fields into a major builder of AI data centers, TechCrunch reports. Its Abilene, Texas, campus supplies computing capacity to OpenAI through Oracle. The report says an initial 1.2-gigawatt development there uses grid power for its primary supply, with a gas-turbine plant reserved for backup. That configuration helps explain why a new set of Boom units might not be needed as its primary near-term power source.
A separate 900-megawatt Abilene data center under construction for Microsoft is planned to use on-site gas turbines, according to the same report. The distinction matters: the end of the Boom purchase should not be read as Crusoe abandoning gas turbines across all projects. What has changed is the supplier relationship and the intended role of Boom’s units in Crusoe’s near-term mix.
Crusoe’s spokesperson described a portfolio that can draw on turbines, wind, solar, batteries and the grid as projects develop. That is the company’s account of its options, not a published allocation of future electricity by source. The article does not identify a replacement supplier for the cancelled Boom order or establish that another technology will be installed at the sites that were originally associated with it.
A reversal in a capital-intensive buildout
The original order combined a large dollar amount, 29 machines and a delivery schedule beginning next year. Its cancellation shows that a high-profile infrastructure commitment can change before equipment arrives, especially when the buyer’s near-term power configuration changes. That is an inference from the announced reversal, not evidence that either partner failed to deliver hardware or broke a contract.
TechCrunch says Crusoe recently raised $3.9 billion, underscoring that the company remains active in building capacity even as this particular agreement ends. Boom, meanwhile, says it is pursuing other Superpower customers. The report leaves unresolved how the cancelled $1.25 billion order affects either company’s spending timetable, whether Boom will win another launch-scale buyer and what power equipment Crusoe will choose for future sites. What is confirmed is the end of the partnership and the two companies’ different explanations of their next steps.
