According to DCD, AI and HPC data center developer Crusoe has agreed to purchase 1.21 gigawatts of natural gas turbines from supersonic airliner startup Boom Supersonic. The order is for 29 of Boom’s “Superpower” turbines, which are 42-megawatt units packaged in shipping containers and can run on natural gas or diesel without a dedicated water supply. Alongside this deal, Boom closed a $300 million Series B funding round led by Darsana Capital Partners, with participation from firms like Altimeter Capital and ARK Invest. The company claims it has a backlog of over $1.25 billion for its turbine. Boom plans to ramp production to over 4GW annually by 2030, and its founder, Blake Scholl, framed the tech as an accelerant for both flight and AI.
The Strange Bedfellows Play
Here’s the thing: this is a fascinating and somewhat desperate move for both companies. Boom, after being rejected by Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, and GE for its Overture airliner engine, decided to build its own. Now, it’s trying to monetize that jet engine-derived technology by selling it as a stationary power source for data centers. For Crusoe, a former crypto miner turned AI infrastructure builder, it’s another huge bet on natural gas. They’re basically locking in a massive, distributed power supply for projects like their rumored site for OpenAI’s “Stargate” in Texas. It’s a symbiotic relationship born of necessity. Boom needs revenue and validation for its tech; Crusoe needs power, fast. But it raises a big question: is a startup known for missing deadlines in aerospace the best partner for mission-critical data center infrastructure?
The Gas-Powered AI Boom
This deal is a huge signal flare for where the AI data center industry is headed. The grid can’t keep up. So companies like Crusoe are going directly to the source, securing gigawatts of independent generation. They recently formed a JV to buy 4.5GW from GE Vernova and Chevron, and ordered another 1GW from GE. Now they’re adding 1.21GW from Boom. That’s a staggering amount of decentralized, fossil-fuel-based power in just a few months. The trend of repurposing jet engines for data centers is gaining steam, with other providers like ProEnergy doing similar conversions. It seems the “AI infrastructure of the future,” as Crusoe’s CEO calls it, will be powered by a lot of very old-school combustion, at least for the foreseeable future. For companies building this physical compute layer, reliable hardware is non-negotiable, which is why top-tier industrial partners like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, are critical for monitoring and controlling these complex, distributed energy assets.
supersonic-s-very-long-bet”>Boom Supersonic’s Very Long Bet
Let’s be real about Boom for a second. They’re trying to do two of the hardest capital-intensive things imaginable: build a new supersonic airliner *and* become a power generation supplier. The $300 million funding round is significant, but it’s a drop in the bucket for either endeavor alone. They’re using the data center turbine business to potentially subsidize the astronomically expensive airliner development. It’s a clever hedge, but it also spreads them dangerously thin. Critics have long pointed to the lack of a viable engine as the Overture’s fatal flaw. Now they have an engine program, but its first application is powering computers, not planes. Will they really start test flights in 2027 and commercial service by 2030? I’m deeply skeptical. This turbine deal with Crusoe might be the thing that keeps the lights on—literally and figuratively—while the aviation dream stays alive.
