The Standards We Hold Ourselves To

Earlier this week, Governor Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT to audit every data center project in the state's interconnection queue, requiring clear disclosure of tax incentives, energy use, water use, and ownership before any new project moves forward.

We support this demand for greater transparency and accountability, and commend Governor Abbott on these important steps.  

This isn’t a new position for us. Our position is consistent with the way we have always done business. As data center development has accelerated across Texas, so have questions from the communities hosting it: what effect will these sites have on their neighbors, who is actually paying for this growth, and who is watching to make sure the promises hold? We believe any company building infrastructure at this scale should welcome the kind of audit Governor Abbott is now requiring. These are fair questions, and every developer – Crusoe included – should be able to answer them clearly.

Energy: We pay our own way for power

For Crusoe, energy-first means planning a site's power from day one – building thoughtfully, in ways that benefit both the grid and the communities we enter, and not just building quickly. We seek out sources of abundant, underutilized energy so our workloads don't add pressure to local grids, and we've become a leader in deploying new power generation capacity to support digital infrastructure. We cover our own onsite generation and any infrastructure upgrades our projects require, so the cost of our growth doesn’t land on a neighbor's electric bill. 

That's also why, earlier this year, we joined the White House's Ratepayer Protection Pledge alongside Governor Abbott and more than 200 other developers, utilities, and states – standing with these leaders to keep investing in America's innovation economy, creating jobs, and responsibly building the power the nation needs, without asking ratepayers to foot the bill. In Abilene, our new campus will run entirely on on-site generation and battery storage, built and paid for by Crusoe.

Water: Our facilities minimize water usage

Water is a shared resource, and we treat it that way. Our closed-loop cooling systems recirculate water in a sealed loop, using virtually none of it during normal operations – a design choice that lets a 200-megawatt Crusoe data center use less water annually than ten average U.S. households. We don't think transparency about that number should be optional, and we don't wait for a regulator to ask for it.

Jobs: We prioritize hiring local residents

Our projects have created more than 13,000 positions to date across high-tech, construction, and skilled trades. We offer those roles to local workers in host communities first, backed by partnerships with regional vocational programs and local school districts. We believe a data center’s long-term economic impact should benefit every student, taxpayer, and business in a community.

Investments: Our projects boost the local economy

We've invested more than $20B to date at the local level, through job creation, local sourcing, and tax contributions that fund schools, emergency services, career training, water infrastructure, and roads. Abilene's economy has grown alongside our investment there – in the past year, the City has permitted more than 1,500 new homes to keep pace, on top of the tax revenue the campus contributes.

When we ask a community for a tax incentive to help build a project, we believe in being transparent about those agreements. What they actually create are enforceable commitments we're accountable for, not a one-way tax break. We think those commitments should be spelled out clearly to the community.  Typically the tax receipts to communities remain very large even after tax abatements are agreed. In fact Crusoe data center projects are often among the largest tax sources if not the single largest tax payer in the communities where we operate. In Abilene alone, our flagship campus is expected to generate up to 32% of the City's and up to 25% of Taylor County's current budgeted property tax revenue once fully built out. Tax revenues from our project in Claude are expected to nearly double Armstrong County’s operating budget next year. 

Ownership: Founded and headquartered in the United States

Crusoe was founded in the United States, in 2018, and remains headquartered here today. We are vertically integrated: we employ hundreds of American workers in Crusoe’s own manufacturing facilities located in Colorado, Oklahoma, and Louisiana to build much of the electrical equipment and switchgear that power our data centers. We're proud that Crusoe jobs are helping build the industrial capacity America needs to win the global race for AI leadership.

Accountability

None of this works as a one-time announcement. We often put our commitments into binding agreements with the communities where we build. We follow strict environmental and safety standards. We also hire local community liaisons so concerns don't have to travel far to reach someone who can quickly act on them.

We've held ourselves to this standard from the start because we don't think it should be possible to build infrastructure at this scale any other way. Governor Abbott is right to hold companies to a high standard, and we're glad to be judged against it.

Texas has been an important partner in Crusoe's growth. And we look forward to continuing that partnership – bringing economic development, jobs, and responsible growth to Texas communities, with commitments built to last for the long term.