Energy Vault begins construction on Texas AI campus

Energy Vault Inc. has started building its AI infrastructure campus in Snyder, Texas, launching the first phase of a project tied to Crusoe Cloud’s modular data center deployment and aimed at bringing new computing capacity online more quickly.

The site, known as Snyder AI, will use Crusoe Spark modular data centers under a commercial agreement with Crusoe Cloud. Energy Vault said the initial phase is designed to provide 8 megawatts of powered shell capacity, with a second phase planned that could expand the site to 25 megawatts. The company is targeting commercial operations in the first quarter of 2027.

The project comes as AI infrastructure development is increasingly shaped by access to power, land, and deployment speed, according to the source material. Developers are turning to modular designs that can be installed faster than conventional data centers, which typically take years to complete.

At the Snyder site, construction work now includes fiber installation, site preparation, electrical infrastructure, and other enabling work needed for Crusoe’s Spark platform. The prefabricated units are designed to be installed and commissioned in weeks.

Energy Vault said the campus is being developed as an integrated AI infrastructure site that combines powered land, electrical systems, N+1 redundancy, battery energy storage systems, and modular data center infrastructure. As part of the arrangement, Energy Vault is purchasing 10 Crusoe Spark modular data centers, which Crusoe will lease back from the company as powered shell infrastructure. The facilities are intended to host Crusoe Cloud computing resources for AI model training, fine-tuning, and inference workloads.

"This announcement is about speed and execution", said Marco Terruzzin, Chief Commercial and Development Officer of Energy Vault. "Earlier this year, we announced our commercial agreement with Crusoe. Today, we are building it. Our initial 8MW deployment is targeted for commercial operation in Q1 2027. Energy Vault is delivering AI infrastructure by combining land, power, redundancy, controls, and modular infrastructure to help AI compute customers move from concept to capacity faster."

Terruzzin added that the company’s relationship with the City of Snyder has focused on early community engagement, responsible site development, and infrastructure investments intended to provide long-term local benefits while generating recurring infrastructure revenue.

Crusoe described the development as part of its push to accelerate AI capacity deployment through modular infrastructure. "Our Crusoe Spark modular data center program is a capacity accelerant and a strategic differentiator for Crusoe and our partners", said Cully Cavness, president, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Crusoe. He said combining the modular platform with Crusoe Cloud capacity creates a scalable model for rapidly deploying AI computing infrastructure at powered sites.

Energy Vault, which is known for utility-scale energy storage technologies including battery, gravity, and green hydrogen systems, said the Snyder development reflects its growing focus on infrastructure for AI and high-performance computing. The Texas campus is being positioned as an early example of the company’s strategy to pair energy infrastructure with modular data center deployments to meet rising demand for AI computing capacity.

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