Crusoe Drops $1.25B Boom Supersonic Turbine Deal for AI Data Centers

Crusoe has walked away from a $1.25 billion plan to buy stationary power turbines from Boom Supersonic for its AI data centers, Boom CEO Blake Scholl confirmed. The supersonic aircraft maker had been positioning its new ground-based turbine line as a way to serve the surging electricity needs of AI compute operators, but Scholl said the arrangement is no longer part of Crusoe's near-term plans. The reversal removes one of the highest-profile commercial endorsements Boom had secured for its stationary power business.

The deal, announced with considerable fanfare, was meant to pair Boom's turbine technology with Crusoe's fast-growing data center footprint. Crusoe builds and operates facilities designed for AI training and inference, a category of workload that draws far more power per square foot than traditional cloud hosting. For Boom, the contract represented a bridge beyond aviation, giving its turbine program a large anchor customer while its passenger aircraft work continues through certification and testing.

Boom's stationary power push was always a side bet for a company best known for the Overture supersonic airliner. Selling turbines to data center operators offered a nearer-term revenue stream than aircraft deliveries, which remain years out. Losing Crusoe as a near-term buyer leaves Boom searching for other large power customers at a moment when demand for on-site generation is climbing across the AI sector.

The timing is awkward for Crusoe, too. AI data center operators are racing to secure electricity as utilities struggle to keep pace with new load requests, and many are turning to gas turbines, fuel cells and other on-site generation to bridge the gap. A $1.25 billion turbine order would have given Crusoe a sizable block of dedicated capacity. Without it, the company will need to line up alternative supply or adjust its buildout schedule.

Neither company has detailed what prompted the change, and Scholl's comments left open whether the two sides might revisit the arrangement later. The obvious question is where Crusoe now sources the generation capacity it had earmarked for Boom's turbines, and whether another equipment maker steps in to fill the order. For Boom, the next test is whether it can land a replacement customer large enough to keep its stationary power line credible.