Overview
Crusoe Builds and Runs a 900 MW Campus for Microsoft
Crusoe announced the campus on March 27, 2026, with Microsoft as the named customer. Two buildings are each designed for 336 MW of critical IT load, fed by a dedicated 900 MW behind-the-meter (BTM) power plant paired with a medium-voltage (MV) battery energy storage system (BESS). Land clearing started at announcement, and the first building is due to energize in mid-2027.
With the adjacent Stargate Abilene campus at about 1.2 GW, Crusoe puts its combined Abilene footprint at about 2.1 GW. Cooling is Crusoe's closed-loop, non-evaporative liquid system, the same design used at Stargate.
| Developer, owner, operator | Crusoe |
|---|---|
| Tenant | Microsoft |
| Location | Abilene, Taylor County, beside Stargate Abilene |
| IT capacity | 900 MW; two buildings at 336 MW critical IT each |
| Power | Dedicated 900 MW on-site plant with MV battery storage |
| Cooling | Closed-loop, non-evaporative liquid cooling |
| Announced | March 27, 2026 |
| First building | Energized mid-2027 (target) |
| Status | Under construction |
Deal structure
Microsoft Took the Capacity Oracle and OpenAI Passed Up
Oracle and OpenAI had planned to grow Stargate Abilene from about 1.2 GW toward 2 GW. On March 6, 2026, Bloomberg reported that they had dropped the expansion over financing strain and shifting OpenAI demand forecasts; OpenAI said it would place the capacity at other sites. Nvidia reportedly paid Crusoe a $150M deposit to hold the freed space for its hardware. Three weeks later Crusoe named Microsoft as the tenant for a new 900 MW build next door.
The two campuses share a developer and a town but not a deal. Microsoft's lease is a standalone contract with Crusoe and sits outside the Stargate joint venture of OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank and MGX. See Microsoft's Texas compute and OpenAI's Texas compute.
| Campus 1: Stargate Abilene | Campus 2: Microsoft | |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | About 1.2 GW, eight buildings | 900 MW, two buildings |
| Developer | Crusoe | Crusoe (also owner and operator) |
| Compute operator | Oracle Cloud Infrastructure | Crusoe |
| Tenant | OpenAI | Microsoft |
| Program | Stargate joint venture | Standalone lease |
| Status | Two buildings live; six more due by end of 2026 | Under construction; first building mid-2027 |
Energy model
A Dedicated Plant Sized to the Campus
Crusoe calls itself an AI factory company: it builds the power plant, the buildings and the cooling as one product and leases the result. At Campus 2 the on-site plant matches the 900 MW campus load, with the MV battery system covering fast load swings and reliability. Crusoe has not said how much of the load will draw on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid, if any.
Liquid cooling delivered direct to the racks is what makes 336 MW per building workable, and the closed loop keeps on-site water use far below an evaporative design. See Behind-the-Meter Power and Water and Cooling.
Constraints
Abilene Power Permits Sit at TCEQ
Crusoe's existing Longhorn Data Center Power Plant at the Stargate site runs 10 gas turbines and 62 diesel generators under minor permits issued in 2024. A major air permit application to add 41 turbines is pending at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which granted a public meeting in September 2026 at the request of State Rep. Stan Lambert. Public filings do not tie that expansion to the Microsoft campus, but any major air permit for Abilene generation falls under Governor Abbott's September 21, 2026 pause on data center permits, expected to hold until ERCOT's large-load review finishes in mid-December. See the Texas data center permit pause.
Record
Dataset Record
- Sources
- Crusoe newsroom, Data Center Dynamics, Bloomberg, Data Center Knowledge, Texas Tribune / Floodlight, Abilene Reporter-News, Office of the Governor of Texas
- Last verified
- October 2026