Crusoe Secures Multiyear Cloud Deal With Perplexity AI

The agreement adds a named enterprise customer to Crusoe's AI infrastructure business, signaling continued private-market demand for dedicated AI compute capacity outside the hyperscaler ecosystem.

Data center operator Crusoe has signed a multiyear cloud services agreement with Perplexity AI Inc., an AI-powered search company, under which Crusoe will provide cloud computing capacity including AI chips and related software. Bloomberg reported the deal on September 15, 2026, citing the agreement as part of Crusoe's broader effort to expand its roster of enterprise clients renting AI infrastructure.

Crusoe, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, was founded in 2018 and originally focused on using stranded natural gas at oil and gas sites to power data centers, reducing flaring emissions while generating computing capacity. The company has since expanded its infrastructure footprint to serve AI workloads more broadly, competing in a market dominated by large cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Perplexity AI is a privately held company based in San Francisco that operates an AI-driven search and answer engine. The company has attracted significant venture investment. According to prior reporting and company disclosures, Perplexity raised funds at a valuation of approximately $9 billion in a financing round completed in 2025, though the company has not filed with the SEC as it remains private and exact financials are not publicly available.

The financial terms of the Crusoe-Perplexity agreement, including the total contract value and the volume of computing capacity committed, were not disclosed in the Bloomberg report. What would reveal those figures is either an SEC filing, which would be triggered if Crusoe pursues a public offering, or a voluntary disclosure by either company.

The deal reflects a pattern in the AI infrastructure market in which AI application companies seek dedicated compute arrangements outside the standard on-demand pricing models of major cloud platforms. Securing a multiyear contract with a named customer provides Crusoe with a degree of revenue predictability that month-to-month cloud usage agreements do not.

Crusoe's positioning as an alternative to hyperscalers is relevant to US investors tracking the AI infrastructure sector. The company competes, at least in part, for workloads that might otherwise flow to publicly traded companies including Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), and Alphabet (GOOGL), all of which report cloud revenue in their quarterly earnings filings with the SEC.

Demand for AI compute capacity has grown materially since the public release of large language models beginning in 2022. Microsoft reported in its fiscal year 2026 earnings that Azure cloud revenue grew 33 percent year over year for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, with AI services cited as a primary driver. Amazon and Alphabet have reported similar trends in their respective SEC filings.

Crusoe has not announced a public offering. Its capital structure and investor composition are not fully disclosed in any public filing, as it remains a privately held entity. The company's most recent publicly reported fundraise was a $600 million Series C round completed in early 2024, as reported at that time by multiple financial news outlets, though the exact use of those proceeds has not been detailed in any public document.

For US investors, the Crusoe-Perplexity agreement is one data point in a larger private-market buildout of AI infrastructure. Whether Crusoe will seek public capital through an IPO or remain private is unknown. A registration statement filed with the SEC would be the document that reveals any such intention.

The deal also reflects Perplexity AI's continued investment in its compute base as it competes with larger, better-capitalized AI search and assistant products. How Perplexity finances its infrastructure obligations, given it is pre-revenue in a traditional sense and dependent on venture capital, is not addressed in the Bloomberg report and is not publicly documented.