Crusoe is securing its energy future to support growing compute demands. The data center developer announced major acquisitions from Form Energy and Redwood Materials to stabilize power for expanding ML clusters. As workloads demand consistent uptime, long-duration storage becomes just as vital as GPU availability.

Crusoe committed to 12 gigawatt-hours of Form Energy's 100-hour iron-air batteries. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2027. This follows Form's massive agreement with Google, signaling that hyperscalers and specialized providers alike are betting on iron-air chemistry for grid independence. Form's technology uses oxidation, essentially controlled rusting, to generate electricity, offering a cost-effective alternative to lithium-ion for extended discharge. The company is currently scaling its West Virginia production line to meet this surge in demand while pursuing significant additional capital.

On the recycling front, Crusoe is deepening ties with Redwood Materials. Building on a successful microgrid deployment operational since mid-2024, which stood as the largest second-life installation at launch, Crusoe will add 8 megawatts of capacity using repurposed EV batteries. This second-life approach reduces hardware waste while providing immediate power buffering for local clusters.

For engineering teams, these moves signal a shift toward energy-resilient infrastructure. Training runs cannot afford grid fluctuations. By locking in multi-day storage now, Crusoe aims to guarantee power availability when compute demand peaks. Form Energy sees data centers as a primary growth vector beyond traditional utilities. As AI infrastructure scales, the partnership between compute developers and energy innovators will define operational limits. Reliability is no longer just about hardware; it is about the electrons feeding it.

Source: TechCrunch