❯ Axios: Compute Provider Crusoe in Talks With at Least Four Banks; Pre-IPO Round Valued at $35 Billion

PROCESSPer Axios reporter Alan Neuhauser, AI data center developer Crusoe has approached at least four Wall Street investment banks about an IPO, with JPMorgan also serving as adviser on its $3 billion pre-IPO round, which targets a valuation of roughly $35 billion. Bloomberg’s July reporting had pegged the figure closer to $30 billion.

FOUNDATIONCrusoe started out mining crypto with power generated from oil-field flare gas, then pivoted to building and self-powering AI data centers. Its customer and supply contracts span Meta, Oracle, Microsoft, and Google; cumulative equity funding exceeds $2.6 billion, and both Nvidia and Fidelity are on the shareholder roster. Its October 2025 Series E valued the company at just over $10 billion — if the $35 billion figure lands, that’s more than triple in under a year. The public-market anchor for this lane is CoreWeave, which also aimed at the $35 billion tier for its IPO.

WINDOWA pre-IPO round at the four-bank stage typically corresponds to a filing window within six months. Whether Crusoe is worth the price hinges on a question public markets will soon judge: is self-powered supply a cost advantage or an asset-heavy drag? Power supply itself is becoming the valuation watershed for compute companies — at a time when data-center restriction clauses abound, developers that can generate their own electricity capture a scarcity premium, not just rack rent.

▪ SIGNALWhat compute companies are now competing on is no longer chip orders — it’s grid interconnection permits.