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Seven years ago, the founders of Crusoe Energy set out to solve a dirty problem. Their mission was to take gas burned off by oil producers, convert it into electricity, and use that power to mine bitcoin. It turned into a good business.
But then came the artificial intelligence boom, and Crusoe co-founders Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness started to see a much bigger opportunity.
As the company focuses on AI and races to complete what it says could be one of most powerful clusters of graphics processing units, or GPUs, in the world, Crusoe is getting out of bitcoin mining. The company said Tuesday that it's struck a deal to offload that operation to NYDIG, a power and financial services firm focused exclusively on bitcoin. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
NYDIG will take on about 135 Crusoe employees, who will continue operating the business under the new ownership. Crusoe will become a major equity holder in the combined entity — second only to Stone Ridge, NYDIG's parent company.
The deal includes Crusoe's technology that captures and converts flared gas from oil fields, and more than 425 modular data centers spread across seven U.S. states and parts of Argentina. Altogether, the operation accounts for roughly 1% of the world's bitcoin mining, according to Crusoe, which was valued late last year at $2.8 billion. NYDIG is also privately held and valued at about $7 billion.
Lochmiller told CNBC that Crusoe started investing in AI infrastructure it its earliest days, and that the business increasingly became a central focus.
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