Chase Lochmiller, Crusoe | RAISE Summit 2026

In this interview from RAISE Summit 2026 in Paris, Chase Lochmiller, chief executive officer and co-founder of Crusoe Energy Systems, joins theCUBE's John Furrier to discuss how AI factories are redefining the economics of large-scale compute infrastructure. Lochmiller describes the shift toward data center-scale computers that convert electricity into intelligence, noting how rack power density has jumped from a few kilowatts to more than 130 kilowatts, with a megawatt per rack on the horizon. He details Crusoe's rapid expansion, including 5 gigawatts of contracted capacity and more than 40 gigawatts in its development pipeline, anchored by its Abilene, Texas campus. The conversation also explores Crusoe's vertically integrated business model, spanning data center construction, its Crusoe Cloud platform and a managed inference service that lets developers deploy models without managing underlying infrastructure. Lochmiller unpacks how long-term offtake contracts and careful credit risk management underpin the debt financing driving the buildout, distinguishing today's AI infrastructure boom from the speculative fiber buildout of the dot-com era. He also details Crusoe's modular, LEGO-like construction approach, which cut deployment time in Abilene to 11 months from an industry-standard 2.5 years, and touches on international expansion into Iceland and Israel. From financing structures to construction innovation, Lochmiller outlines how Crusoe is scaling AI factories fast enough to keep pace with surging enterprise demand. Find more SiliconANGLE news and analysis https://siliconangle.com/ Follow theCUBE's wall-to-wall event coverage https://siliconangle.com/events/ Learn about the latest theCUBE events https://www.thecube.net/ 00:00 - Foundations and Frontiers of AI Infrastructure 03:50 - AI Acceleration and Workforce Dynamics 06:07 - Strategic Growth: Infrastructure and Global Expansion 09:15 - Strategic Financial Dynamics: Balancing Demand and Risk 13:17 - AI Factories: Trends, Integration, and Intellectual Property 16:53 - Strategic Growth and Future Focus #theCUBE #RaiseSummit #theCUBEresearch #CrusoeEnergy #AIInfrastructure #DataCenters