The supplier of "Stargate" plans to raise $1 billion and is valued at $10 billion.

Against the backdrop of a surge in AI computing power demand, Crusoe, a data center developer supporting OpenAI's "Stargate," is seeking a massive new round of financing worth $1 billion. Its valuation is expected to more than triple in less than a year.

The AI arms race is propelling a data center developer into the club of companies valued at over $10 billion. Crusoe, the company that developed the first data center for OpenAI's "Stargate" supercomputer project, is planning a large - scale financing round.

On August 21st, according to sources who spoke to The Information, this seven - year - old company is in talks to raise at least $1 billion at a valuation of $10 billion. The financing round aims to provide ammunition for Crusoe to purchase more AI chips to fulfill its ambition of becoming a "powerful cloud service provider."

To support the growth of its cloud business, Crusoe has acquired Atero, a cloud - computing startup based in Tel Aviv. Sources said that the software developed by Atero can significantly improve the utilization and efficiency of graphics processing units (GPUs). The terms of this acquisition were not disclosed.

If the deal is completed at a valuation of $10 billion, it would mean that Crusoe's valuation has more than tripled in less than a year. This high valuation reflects investors' expectations of its huge growth potential in the AI wave, although the company also faces fierce market competition and high capital expenditure pressure.

01 Leveraging OpenAI, Crusoe Aims for a $10 - Billion Valuation

Sources revealed that Crusoe has painted an extremely optimistic growth picture for investors to support its $10 - billion valuation. The company expects its revenue to grow from $250 million last year to $500 million this year and soar to $2.2 billion next year. These forecasts have not been reported before.

Based on a $10 - billion valuation, its valuation is 40 times last year's revenue, a multiple higher than that of its listed competitor CoreWeave, whose enterprise value is about 30 times last year's revenue.

Crusoe explained to investors that the rapid business growth will justify this price. It is not clear whether this round of financing will include debt.

02 Challenging Amazon? Crusoe's Cloud Ambitions

Crusoe's business model is undergoing a profound transformation. Initially, the company's business was to develop data centers and then lease or sell them to other companies. The most well - known case is that the company leased its site in Abilene, Texas, to Oracle. Oracle plans to deploy NVIDIA chips in this facility and lease the computing power to OpenAI.

However, Crusoe is increasingly retaining ownership of its own data centers and plans to generate revenue directly by leasing chips to its own customers. This strategy pits it directly against industry giants such as Amazon AWS, Oracle, and CoreWeave.

The company has informed investors that the cloud business will account for a larger proportion of its total revenue in the future. It expects cloud leasing sales to grow from $100 million last year to about $1.3 billion next year and reach $18 billion by the end of 2030.

03 Consuming $2 - 4 Billion Annually, Where Does the Money Come From?

Before seeking a new round of financing, Crusoe has received support from many well - known investors. In December last year, the company raised $600 million in a financing round led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund at a valuation of $2.8 billion. Its investor lineup also includes Valor Equity Partners, NVIDIA, Mubadala Investment Company, and Fidelity.

Despite the capital support, the high costs of developing data centers and purchasing chips have brought huge financial pressure to Crusoe. The company has admitted to investors that it expects to consume $2 - 4 billion annually until the early next decade, making continuous financing a necessary part of its expansion strategy.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Hard AI", author: Focusing on technology R & D. Republished by 36Kr with permission.