Microsoft secures 900 MW AI capacity at Crusoe Texas campus with mid 2027 target

Crusoe said Friday it is developing a new 900 megawatt AI factory campus in Abilene, Texas, to support Microsoft, expanding one of the largest AI infrastructure hubs in the US as hyperscalers race to secure power and data center capacity for next-generation AI workloads.

The new campus will sit next to Crusoe’s existing Abilene infrastructure and include two buildings plus an onsite power plant designed to support grid resilience. Crusoe said the addition will bring the site’s total projected capacity to 2.1 gigawatts, with land clearing already underway and the first building expected to be energized in mid 2027.

The move builds on Crusoe’s earlier Abilene expansion. In March 2025, the company said it was increasing the campus to 1.2 gigawatts across eight buildings, with the second phase then expected to finish in 2026. Crusoe has described the first Abilene phase as a 200 megawatt initial build that scaled into one of the biggest AI infrastructure developments in the country.

The announcement comes days after Microsoft agreed to lease a large data center in Abilene, Texas, from Crusoe, which was originally planned for Oracle and OpenAI. The leased capacity is about 700 megawatts, and the site sits adjacent to the Stargate campus, highlighting how quickly tenants and build plans are shifting in the AI infrastructure race.

That backdrop matters because Abilene has emerged as a strategic AI buildout zone. Recent coverage has tied the area to Stargate-related expansion efforts, while Crusoe has kept pressing ahead with its own campus growth and manufacturing push.

Crusoe said earlier this month it is also building a manufacturing facility for modular AI factories, underscoring how developers are trying to standardize and accelerate deployment as power becomes the main bottleneck.

Crusoe said the new Abilene campus is designed around energy availability first. It will feature 900 megawatts of behind-the-meter onsite generation, battery storage, ultra-high-density compute capacity, and closed-loop non-evaporative liquid cooling.

The company said the project is expected to create thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent roles, while the first eight buildings of the existing campus are already expected to contribute meaningfully to Abilene and Taylor County tax revenue.

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