US energy storage firm Energy Vault has partnered with AI infrastructure provider Crusoe to deploy modular data centers at Energy Vault’s technology center in Snyder, Texas.

According to the companies, the initial deployment will be scalable up to 25MW of IT load and will use Crusoe’s Spark modular data center product. Deployments are expected to begin this year and will support Crusoe Cloud’s expansion, including its managed inference services.

Under the terms of the deal, Energy Vault will provide modular “powered shell” infrastructure to support rapid installation of high-density compute. The companies claim that the combination of a pre-powered site and modular deployment model is intended to shorten delivery timelines and enable phased expansion as demand grows.

“Crusoe is executing against a clear market imperative: customers need scalable compute delivered quickly and reliably,” said Robert Piconi, CEO and chairman, Energy Vault. “Our role is to provide the critical energy infrastructure foundation – the ‘powered shell’ – that enables rapid installation and stable operations. This agreement marks an important milestone for Energy Vault as we establish a commercial platform in AI infrastructure to complement our Asset Vault platform while expanding our build-own-operate strategy into a new, high-growth segment.”

Crusoe launched its Spark modular offering in June of last year. The modular solution integrates data center critical infrastructure, including cooling, power, and GPU-ready racks, into a single unit, optimized for AI compute. The system is designed for rapid deployments and can be scaled due to its modular nature.

“By manufacturing Spark units and partnering with the talented team at Energy Vault, we are furthering Crusoe’s vision of vertically-integrated, energy-first AI infrastructure,” said Cully Cavness, co-founder, president, and chief strategy officer at Crusoe. “This project demonstrates the potential for modular AI factories across applications such as distributed low-latency inference, on-premise deployments, grouped training clusters, data-sovereignty deployments, and many more potential use cases. We are also very proud to work alongside Energy Vault, a partner that shares our commitment to solving the power constraints of the AI era through focused execution and technology innovation.”

Energy Vault said the partnership will support the expansion of its “Own & Operate” business model into the AI infrastructure space, with long-term contracted powered shell deployments.

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.

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.

Following this, the company partnered with Peak Energy to develop dedicated energy storage architecture for AI-focused data centers and grid-scale storage projects.