Crusoe Energy exits Bitcoin mining business, sells operations to NYDIG to focus on AI

Crusoe Energy has announced that it plans to sell its Bitcoin mining operation and digital flare mitigation business to New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), subject to regulatory approvals and other consents.

The United States-based Bitcoin miner company said it is wrapping up the business to focus on artificial intelligence. Under the agreement, NYDIG will purchase 425 modular data centers in seven U.S. states and Argentina for Bitcoin mining. 

Crusoe transfers Bitcoin mining business to NYDIG to focus on AI expansion

Founded in 2018, Crusoe pioneered Digital Flare Mitigation (DFM) technology. DFM captures natural gas from oil fields that would have otherwise burned off into the atmosphere as a “flare” and turns that stranded energy into electricity.

The electricity is then used to power the high-performance computing required for Bitcoin mining and AI data centers. Some reports suggest that the company’s Bitcoin mining operation accounts for 1% of the world’s Bitcoin mining. 

On Tuesday, the company announced that it had agreed to transfer that operation to NYDIG, a financial services and power company specializing in Bitcoin. However, the agreement’s terms were not revealed.

When the transaction finally closes, about 135 Crusoe staff members will join the NYDIG team and continue running the company under NYDIG. The transaction will not result in the elimination of any roles. However, the transaction terms were not disclosed to the public.

According to NYDIG, the acquisition of Crusoe’s Bitcoin mining business will help expand its role in supporting Bitcoin’s proof-of-work security. Although Crusoe will own a sizable portion of the combined company, most shares will be owned by NYDIG’s parent company, Stone Ridge.

NYDIG founder and executive chairman Ross Stevens said, “It is critically important to keep the Bitcoin network secure, and at the lowest possible cost,” claiming that fiat currencies are “collapsing against Bitcoin around the world.” 

Crusoe shifts focus to AI with plans to build one of the world’s most powerful GPU clusters

Crusoe is exiting the Bitcoin mining business to finish what it claims could be one of the AI landscape’s most powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) clusters.

Chase Lochmiller, CEO and co-founder of Crusoe Energy, stated that Crusoe began investing in AI infrastructure early on, and the business became more significant.

“We’d actually been building this AI business since the start of the company.” He added, “But over time, that business has become a meaningful part of our focus, capital allocation, and growth,” said Lochmiller.

Significant investor interest has been sparked by the growing need for AI processors, primarily from Nvidia .

CoreWeave, another company that started in crypto before pivoting to AI, is set to go public this week. Its potential valuation exceeds $25 billion. CoreWeave provides cloud-based Nvidia processors to companies, including Meta and Microsoft and reported revenue growth of more than 700% to $1.92 billion last year.

Crusoe sees a lot of potential in the AI sector since it has emerged as its major source of income

Crusoe discovered that its AI and Bitcoin businesses had different uptime, scalability, and energy-sourcing needs.

By mid-2026, the firm plans to build a hyperscale data center campus in the Texas prairie town of Abilene, with a 206-megawatt capacity that will likely increase to 1.2 gigawatts.

Crusoe claims the project will begin in June and could set a new speed record for building greenfield data centers.

Crusoe is already running AI workloads in Iceland using only geothermal and hydropower, and it is growing its cloud platform to provide on-demand access to powerful GPUs.

Cully Cavness, the co-founder, president, and chief operating officer at Crusoe, said that their primary source of revenue now came from the AI industry. As a result, he stated that with what they had already announced and more to come, they had a significant advantage and a head start on the big opportunity ahead.

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