Battery energy storage firm Energy Vault has broken ground on its first data center, in partnership with AI data center developer Crusoe.

The campus, located in Snyder, Texas, will comprise ten Crusoe Spark modular data centers, with a combined capacity of 8MW. The site could be expanded to 25MW in a second phase.

The Crusoe Spark is a prefabricated AI data center housed in a shipping-sized container, announced in June of last year. Crusoe claims it is a fully integrated AI solution that integrates GPU racks, cooling, power distribution, remote monitoring, and fire suppression into a transportable chassis.

Construction activities are reportedly now underway at the site, including fiber installation, site preparation, power infrastructure, and enabling works. An exact completion date was not shared; however, Crusoe claims that it can deploy the units in “as little as three months,” as they are prefabricated at its Brighton, Colorado facility.

The IT capacity from the data center will feed into the Crusoe Cloud. As part of the agreement, Energy Vault has purchased the Crusoe Spark units and subsequently leased them back to Crusoe to power its cloud services, including its managed inference service line.

The modular data center units are expected to be powered by a combination of solar and energy storage operated by Energy Vault. It is unclear whether the Snyder site has a grid connection as a backup or supplement to its on-site generation. DCD has reached out for further information.

Energy Vault is also pursuing the first grid-scale deployment of its gravity-based storage technology at the same Snyder facility. However, it is unlikely to be utilized to power the data center units, as it is a demonstration project.

The data center was first announced in February, as part of a strategic framework agreement between Energy Vault and Crusoe.

Founded in 2018, Crusoe initially focused on developing cryptomining facilities, successfully developing more than 250MW of capacity across seven US states. However, in recent years, the company has pivoted towards AI and cloud data center developments. The company is now best known as the developer of OpenAI's Stargate data center campus in Abilene, Texas. More recently, it announced that it would begin offering a new Edge offering based on its Spark modular units.

Energy Vault develops and operates grid-scale energy storage projects using battery, gravity, and hydrogen technologies. Energy Vault has signed several deals with data center operators to supply them with energy storage systems. Most notably, in December 2024, the company partnered with RackScale Data Centers (RSDC) to deliver 2GW/20GWh of primary power to RSDC data centers through its novel battery energy storage system.