Crusoe drops $1.25B plan to use Boom turbines at AI data centers

By Splitfeed EditorialLast updated Sep 26, 2026, 18:55 UTC

On September 25, 2026, Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl confirmed that Crusoe had walked away from a $1.25 billion agreement to deploy Boom's stationary power plant turbines at Crusoe's AI data centers. Scholl described the turbines as no longer part of Crusoe's near-term plans, which was the only explanation offered publicly. Boom Supersonic, best known for its supersonic passenger aircraft program, had been developing stationary turbine technology as a separate but related line of business, and the Crusoe contract had represented one of its most significant potential revenue opportunities outside aviation.

The cancellation matters because it touches on one of the central bottlenecks in the AI infrastructure build-out: reliable, large-scale power supply for data centers. Crusoe has positioned itself as a company that pairs computing infrastructure with unconventional energy sources, so its decision to step back from a bespoke turbine arrangement worth over a billion dollars raises questions about the commercial readiness of novel power technologies for this sector. Whether the decision reflects concerns about Boom's technology, changes in Crusoe's own expansion timeline, cost reassessments, or shifts toward more established power sources is not yet clear from what has been stated publicly.

None of the three camps, Pro-AI, Anti-AI, or Middle Ground, had published reactions to this story at the time of writing. Pro-AI voices would typically frame a cancellation like this as routine course-correction in a fast-moving industry, arguing that data center operators are simply optimizing for speed and reliability. Anti-AI voices would likely point to the story as evidence that the energy demands of AI infrastructure are straining even creative financing and supply arrangements. Middle Ground observers would probably focus on what the cancellation signals about the gap between the pace of AI compute demand and the pace at which new energy technologies can realistically be brought to scale.

The argument will sharpen once Crusoe signals what power arrangement it is pursuing instead, and whether Boom Supersonic finds an alternative customer for its stationary turbine program. Any public announcement from either company about next steps in their respective infrastructure or energy strategies would clarify how much of this decision was specific to the two parties and how much reflects broader market conditions.