AI data centre company Crusoe has secured a five-year cloud computing agreement worth about $13 billion with trading firm Jane Street Group, in a deal that highlights the rapidly growing demand for computing infrastructure needed to train and operate artificial intelligence systems.
The agreement, reported by Bloomberg News on Thursday and attributed to people familiar with the matter, will give Jane Street access to clusters of graphics processing units (GPUs) and other specialised infrastructure through Crusoe’s cloud platform.
The size of the contract makes Jane Street Crusoe’s highest-profile cloud customer to date and could provide a major boost to the startup as it seeks to raise billions of dollars to finance its continued expansion.
Under the arrangement, Crusoe will provide the computing capacity required for AI training and inference. Training involves using large amounts of data to develop and improve AI models, while inference refers to the computing power required to run those models and generate responses or predictions.
The agreement comes at a time when demand for AI computing capacity is soaring, forcing technology companies, financial firms and other businesses to secure access to increasingly powerful data centre infrastructure.
Crusoe has been expanding aggressively in the AI infrastructure sector as companies pour money into data centres to support the development and deployment of increasingly sophisticated AI models.
Fundraising ambitions
The Jane Street agreement is also expected to strengthen Crusoe’s position as it seeks fresh investment.
According to Bloomberg, the company has been in discussions to raise about $3 billion at a valuation of roughly $30 billion. Interest generated by the Jane Street contract has reportedly helped attract attention to the fundraising effort.
A deal of this size would represent a significant increase in Crusoe’s financial firepower as it expands its data centre and cloud operations.
Crusoe has emerged as part of a growing group of infrastructure companies seeking to capitalise on the enormous computing requirements of the AI boom. As AI models become larger and businesses deploy them across more applications, access to GPUs, data centres, power and cloud services has become increasingly critical.
Jane Street, meanwhile, is a major global trading firm known for using sophisticated technology and quantitative strategies across financial markets. Its decision to secure substantial AI computing capacity underscores the expanding role of artificial intelligence and advanced computing within the financial sector.
The companies had not immediately responded to Reuters’ requests for comment on the reported agreement.
The reported contract comes amid a broader surge in investment in AI infrastructure. Technology companies and specialised data centre operators are racing to build the capacity required to meet demand, while access to high-performance GPUs has become one of the most important constraints in the development of advanced AI systems.
For Crusoe, the Jane Street agreement provides a potentially transformative anchor customer at a time when the company is attempting to establish itself as a major provider of AI computing infrastructure.
With billions of dollars flowing into the sector, the five-year contract demonstrates how companies outside the traditional technology industry are increasingly willing to commit substantial sums to secure the computing power needed for the AI era.