• Discussing listing with external banks
• Could pursue M&A to buy talent
• Expected to end this year with USD 500m in revenue

Data center startup Crusoe is discussing listing as soon as next year, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Crusoe is in discussions with external banks about the IPO plan; at this stage, a syndicate has not been appointed yet nor a lead left formalized, the sources said.

The full advisory structure is likely to be determined in early 2026, one source added.

On the sidelines of the UBS Global Technology and AI Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, Crusoe CEO and co-founder Chase Lochmiller said he declined to comment on whether the firm is going public next year or not and that the company is evaluating its options.

Tapping the public markets would be an “interesting way” for the AI infrastructure company to capitalize its business and growth, among other options it is evaluating, he noted.

The company is currently busy with an ongoing employee share sale worth around USD 120m, one source said. This round, as reported by The Information in September, would be valued at a 30% premium to the equity round it announced in October to USD 13bn.

The source added that management remains very optimistic internally about the timeline. After a period of modest de-risking around AI in recent months, investor sentiment is expected to swing decisively back to risk-on in 2026, driven by the view that these are the companies positioned to dominate this segment of the economy over the next decade. Investors, the source said, will either buy in soon or risk missing out altogether. The source added that Crusoe’s projections support the view that it could become a significant cash generator.

In October, Crusoe secured USD 1.4bn in an oversubscribed round, which was led by Mubadala Capital and Valor Equity Partners, as reported by the Financial Times. To date, the firm has raised USD 3.8bn in total funding to fuel the AI infrastructure buildout.

Crusoe is also looking at M&A on an opportunistic basis, Lochmiller said. In August, the startup acquired Atero, which would help accelerate inference workloads, Lochmiller said. Atero included a highly technical team of engineers, and Crusoe would be interested in acquiring a similar profile of talent in the future. It would also look to acquire teams of electricians in response to the labor shortage happening with constructing data centers.

Crusoe is part of the so-called neo-cloud cohort that contains firms like CoreWeave, which went public in March, and Lambda Labs, which is also interested in the public markets, hoping to capture public markets’ enthusiasm for AI infrastructure. Neo-clouds specialize in GPUs-as-a-service for AI workloads.

Coreweave’s shares are trading at USD 85.28 as of early afternoon 5 December, up 113% since its public market debut.

Founded in 2018, Crusoe is newer and smaller than CoreWeave and its positioning is around customized service and cost-efficiency, another source familiar with the matter said, adding that it would be hard for them to win large enterprise contracts without more capital.

The firm is expected to end this year with USD 500m in revenue, another source familiar with the matter said, adding that it is growing at a similar rate to Lambda Labs. Lambda Labs has hired Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Citi to prepare for a listing as soon as the first half of 2026, The Information reported in September.

Founded by Lochmiller and Cully Cavness, Crusoe had started out with a focus on powering cryptocurrency mining using excess natural gas from oil drilling. It did not launch its AI cloud business until 2022.

Crusoe declined to comment.