Crusoe Drops Boom Turbines as Google Launches Orbital Data Centre Test

Crusoe, the Denver-based AI data centre builder, has ended plans to use a new line of stationary power plants from fellow Denver company Boom Supersonic, according to a TechCrunch report on 25 September. The deal was worth $1.25bn for 29 of Boom's 42-megawatt Superpower turbines, with first deliveries due in 2027.

Boom CEO Blake Scholl said on X that the two companies are no longer moving forward with the turbine launch partnership. He noted that other customers were in the pipeline. Crusoe spokesperson Andrew Schmitt told TechCrunch the company's energy plans "haven't changed" and that it still plans to use turbines, "just not Boom's."

The split matters because Crusoe is one of the biggest builders of AI data centres, including a campus in Abilene, Texas, that supplies computing power to OpenAI. Its initial 1.2 gigawatt data centre there is powered by the grid, with a gas-turbine plant used only for backup. A second, 900 megawatt facility in Abilene for Microsoft will run on on-site gas turbines. Losing its launch customer is a setback for Boom, which raised $300 million last year largely to commercialise the stationary power business.

The grid is the bottleneck

On the same day, The Register reported that the US Department of Energy announced $5.25 billion for grid improvements, including $1.9 billion of federal funds and $3.35 billion in cost-share funding. The programme spans 31 projects in 26 states. It is expected to add at least 23 gigawatts of capacity by reconductoring or rebuilding more than 1,500 miles of transmission lines and deploying grid-enhancing technologies across 21,000 miles of infrastructure.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement that the investments would "get more out of the infrastructure we already have" and help deliver affordable, reliable power. The Register noted, however, that the programme may not be enough. Moody's warned earlier in September that data centre construction is outpacing the grid's ability to add capacity, and estimates US data centre electricity consumption will reach 426 TWh by 2030, nearly double the 2025 figure.

Where the grid cannot reach, operators are looking up. Google is preparing to launch an experimental satellite called MVP on 1 October aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, as part of its Project Suncatcher effort to test orbital AI data centres, Ars Technica reported on 24 September. The satellite, about the size of a refrigerator, carries four of Google's custom TPU accelerators and solar panels supplying roughly one kilowatt of power, according to The New York Times, as cited by both Ars Technica and Tom's Hardware.

Cooling is the hard part. Google's system uses a malleable thermal interface material that connects the chips to aluminium and copper heat pipes. Those pipes conduct heat into a radiator that projects it into space. Even so, the TPUs can only run in bursts of about 15 minutes before they must shut down to let the radiators catch up. Google will run Gemini models on the hardware for testing.

James Manyika, Google's senior vice president of research, told the Times that the company does not expect "anything usefully operational in the next few years." He compared the effort to Google's driverless car programme, which was tested roughly 15 years before anything shipped.

Regulators and residents push back

On the ground, enforcement is getting sharper. New Jersey ordered DataOne, the operator of one of the East Coast's largest planned data centres, to pay a $1.1 million fine for secretly installing and operating 62 gas generators in violation of the state's Air Pollution Control Act, Ars Technica reported on 24 September. The investigation by The Guardian and Floodlight News used thermal drone footage showing 45 of the generators running. None had permits, despite operating at 1,982-kilowatt capacities, more than 50 times the state threshold.

DataOne was given 45 days to apply for permits or cease operations, but can keep running the engines while it seeks them. Nichole Gardner of the local nonprofit Sustain SJ told Ars the penalty was "insufficient, both in dollar amount and enforcement." The company told The New York Times it "disagreed" with the fine and would apply for the air permits.

The pattern is not confined to the US. In Devon, England, documents obtained through freedom of information requests show that Torridge district council backed Xlinks' proposed 1.5GW AI data campus more than a year before the public knew about it, according to a Guardian report covered by The Next Web on 27 September. The council sent a letter of support in April 2025, before any environmental study or public consultation. Xlinks puts the cost at up to £13.8bn.

In Australia, officials argue the backlash is an American import. Belinda Dennett of Data Centres Australia said in March that "Australia's datacentre debate is being fought on America's facts." She noted the US has 5,400 data centres with 53.7 gigawatts of capacity, against 252 in Australia with 1.4 gigawatts. The Guardian noted what Dennett omitted: per capita, Australia has just under one data centre per 100,000 people, against 1.5 in the US.