Denver-based is opening a factory in Brighton to manufacture modular, prefabricated data centers dubbed Crusoe Spark.
The company also announced the launch of Crusoe Edge Zones, a new cloud offering that enables low latency and inference, when a trained artificial intelligence model applies its knowledge to new data.
Crusoe said in a statement late last week that it is leasing and building out a 352,000-square-foot facility, to be called Spark Factory. The company’s investment in the factory and an initial fleet of the modular units totals roughly $200 million.
The factory is expected to create more than 200 jobs in Brighton and additional jobs throughout Crusoe’s supply chains. The positions will add to the company’s more than 500 employees working in Colorado, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
“Speed is core to Crusoe’s DNA, and is the primary driver behind our new Spark Factory – allowing us to move beyond traditional construction methods to deliver AI infrastructure in a modular productized form factor with velocity,” said Cully Cavness, Crusoe’s co-founder, president and chief strategy officer.
Production is expected to start in the second half of this year.
“Colorado is the best place in the country to build the future. Crusoe’s new ‘Spark Factory’ will create more than 200 high-paying jobs in Colorado building upon our strong and talented workforce,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement.
Crusoe Edge Zones, powered by Crusoe Spark, brings AI computing “to virtually any location,” the company said. The Spark units can be scaled up from hundreds of kilowatts to tens or hundreds of megawatts of power, according to Crusoe.
The modular units can be deployed individually as stand-alone computing hubs or grouped into larger integrated clusters.
“By treating infrastructure as a manufactured product, Crusoe can deliver these AI-optimized data centers in as little as three months,” the company said.
Crusoe’s units use diverse power sources, including solar energy, repurposed electric vehicle batteries, power from the grid and natural gas. Crusoe has teamed with Redwood Materials, a leading battery recycling and materials company, to run with repurposed batteries and solar power.
Cavness and Chase Lochmiller,Crusoe’s CEO, started the company in 2018. They were Kent Denver School classmates.
Crusoe started out powering cryptocurrency mining and data production with otherwise wasted methane at oil and natural gas sites. Crusoe tapped the methane that’s “flared,” emitted and not combusted.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
but still uses methane to run data centers.
Crusoe is one of Colorado’s two “decacorns,” a private company worth $10 billion or more. The Colorado Technology Association said there are at least 18 unicorns active in the state, private companies valued at $1 billion or more.
Updated to correct company’s name.
