An AI infrastructure firm making news for its climate-friendly mission will be expanding its operations in Tulsa and creating 100 new jobs by the end of the year.
Crusoe Energy Systems LLC, which has dual headquarters in Denver and San Francisco and operates in seven countries, currently has a small team in Tulsa dedicated to repairing their technology and components used in the field.
The company’s expansion plans, announced at a Friday news conference in Tulsa, include investing about $10 million into a new Tulsa manufacturing facility.
Critical elements of data center infrastructure, such as switchgear, will be manufactured at the site, officials said.
The plant will be located in existing space at 5404 S. 122nd East Ave. and will be roughly 120,000 square feet in size.
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Crusoe was recently featured in a “60 Minutes” story for its efforts to make computing more climate friendly.
Cully Cavness, president and co-founder of Crusoe, said: “I’m just really delighted about this. I think it’s a super-exciting step for Crusoe. Hopefully it’s an equally exciting step for Tulsa.”
“Tulsa is absolutely the perfect place for us to scale up,” Cavness said. “The ability to hire quickly a large number of people, from engineering to manufacturing to safety — all these types of disciplines will be required. They already exist here in Tulsa.”
Tulsa’s “pro-business” environment was also a big selling point, he added.
“The chamber and other organizations have been so welcoming, providing everything from introductions to various incentives to assistance in making the right connections,” Cavness said. “More than anything, though, it’s just the atmosphere. We can tell Tulsa wants us to be here. And you can’t take that for granted today.”
Ken Parker, Crusoe senior vice president of operations and a Tulsa native, said: “We’re just really excited about this. We’re looking to build switchgears. There’s a critical lack of it in the United States and really the world right now. And Tulsa is going to help us manufacture that.”
He said the company wants to hire 100 people by the end of the year.
“Then we hope to up that to a couple hundred by next year as fast as we can get the equipment and people in and trained,” Parker said.
Crusoe builds and operates clean computing infrastructure, reducing both the costs and the environmental impact of the world’s expanding digital economy. The company is focused also on sustainable innovation and uses wasted, stranded and clean sources of energy to power AI, crypto and other high-performance computing applications.
“It is crystal clear that the culture at Crusoe is super-impressive, and that you have a extremely bright future,” said Mike Neal, president and CEO of the Tulsa Regional Chamber. “We’re really excited that you could share that bright future with us here in Tulsa and northeast Oklahoma.”
Erran Parsley, economic development director for the city of Tulsa, said: “One of the great gifts and compliments to a city is when a company has a presence in your city, and then says it’s time to invest more and expand in your city as well. So once again, thank you for investing and expanding in our city.”
For more information about Crusoe, visit crusoe.ai.
