- Crusoe scrapped a $1.25 billion deal for 29 Boom Superpower turbines (42MW each) originally due to start arriving in 2027.
- Boom CEO Blake Scholl said turbines “are no longer part of Crusoe’s near-term primary power mix,” then deleted the line.
- Crusoe’s two Abilene, Texas data centers already run on grid power and on-site gas turbines instead — 1.2GW for Oracle/OpenAI, 900MW for Microsoft.
- Boom still expects to deliver 250MW to other customers next year and reach 1GW of stationary power by 2028.
Nine months ago, a $1.25 billion turbine order looked like a sure thing. On September 25, 2026, it quietly evaporated — and the reason two Denver companies gave for why says more about the state of the AI buildout than either wanted to admit.
A $1.25 Billion Bet That Didn’t Survive Contact With Reality
What Crusoe Actually Signed Up For
Crusoe Energy — the Denver-based AI data center startup that started life as a bitcoin miner in 2018 and has since raised $3.9 billion — agreed to buy 29 of Boom Supersonic’s Superpower turbines, each rated at 42 megawatts, for $1.25 billion. Delivery was scheduled to begin in 2027. For Boom, better known for its Overture supersonic jet program, the deal was the anchor customer for an entirely new stationary power plant business — one the company had raised $300 million to commercialize.
Trend Insight — A turbine order this size, from a company that isn’t in the power business, shows how desperate AI infrastructure players became to lock down electricity ahead of a chip shortage that never quite matched the power shortage.
Why the Partnership Fell Apart
Two Statements, One Retraction
The unwind became public when Boom CEO Blake Scholl posted that turbines “are no longer part of Crusoe’s near term primary power mix at Abilene,” adding that “a launch partnership just didn’t make sense.” He later removed that wording. Crusoe spokesperson Andrew Schmitt pushed back on the framing, saying the company’s energy strategy “haven’t changed” and that Crusoe still plans to use turbines — “just not Boom’s.”
Trend Insight — The contradictory messaging is itself a signal: both sides needed to control the story, because a canceled billion-dollar turbine order reads very differently depending on whether it’s “Crusoe changed its mind” or “Boom couldn’t deliver.”
How Crusoe Is Actually Powering Its AI Data Centers
Grid, Gas, and Whatever Comes Next
Crusoe’s two data centers in Abilene, Texas make the current strategy clear. The 1.2-gigawatt facility built for Oracle and OpenAI draws from the electrical grid, with gas turbines held in reserve for backup only. The second, a 900-megawatt site for Microsoft, runs on on-site gas turbines directly. Going forward, Crusoe says it’s keeping every option open — wind, solar, batteries, grid power, and turbines from suppliers other than Boom.
Trend Insight — Notice what’s missing from that list: certainty. A company that just raised $3.9 billion still doesn’t have one settled answer for how it powers its data centers — because at gigawatt scale, no single power source is fast or reliable enough on its own.
What This Means for Boom Supersonic
Losing a Marquee Customer, Not the Business
For Boom, the fallout is real but not fatal. Scholl says other customers are already “in its pipeline,” with plans to deliver 250 megawatts next year and reach 1 gigawatt of stationary power capacity by 2028. But losing the customer that was supposed to prove the model works is a setback for a division that was meant to help fund Boom’s core Overture supersonic jet program.
Trend Insight — The bigger story isn’t Boom or Crusoe individually — it’s that jet-engine makers, grid operators, and AI data center companies are all bidding for the same scarce megawatts. Power, not GPUs, is becoming the real constraint on how fast AI can scale.
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Sources
- TechCrunch — Crusoe abandons $1.25B plan to use Boom turbines at AI data centers
- Yahoo Finance — Crusoe abandons $1.25B plan to use Boom turbines at AI data centers
AI Biz Insider · AI Trends EN · aibizinsider.com
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