AMD Backs $300 Million Crusoe Loan to Expand AI Chip Deployment in U.S. Data Centers
Advanced Micro Devices is set to support a $300 million loan for AI focused cloud startup Crusoe, underscoring intensifying competition in the artificial intelligence infrastructure market. The arrangement, reported by The Information, would see AMD effectively backstop the financing to help Crusoe acquire and deploy its AI accelerators at scale.
Under the structure described, Goldman Sachs is providing the loan, which will be secured by the AI chips and related equipment purchased by Crusoe. AMD has agreed to provide additional support by offering to lease back its own chips if Crusoe fails to secure sufficient end customers such as AI developers and enterprise clients. This backstop mechanism reportedly enabled Crusoe to secure a significantly lower interest rate, around 6 percent, than it might otherwise have obtained.
The move reflects the increasingly strategic role chipmakers are playing in financing AI infrastructure expansion. As demand for high performance computing surges, semiconductor firms are not only supplying hardware but also facilitating deployment through creative financing models. Nvidia has previously pursued similar partnerships and investments with AI cloud providers, prompting debate among investors about the sustainability of circular capital flows within the AI ecosystem.
Crusoe, founded in 2018 and initially focused on cryptocurrency infrastructure, has since pivoted toward artificial intelligence cloud services. The company is part of a growing group of so called neocloud providers that specialize in AI optimized data centers. These firms aim to serve startups and enterprises seeking access to advanced GPUs without building their own infrastructure.
According to industry reports, Crusoe is installing AMD chips in a new data center project in Ohio being developed by 5C, a Canadian firm backed by Brookfield. The facility is expected to cater to AI workloads requiring large scale parallel processing and energy efficient design. Crusoe’s leadership previously indicated plans to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars worth of AMD’s latest AI accelerators, signaling confidence in the chipmaker’s roadmap.
For AMD, the loan backstop offers a way to accelerate market adoption of its AI hardware in competition with Nvidia, which currently dominates the AI training and inference segment. By supporting Crusoe’s financing, AMD helps ensure its chips are deployed in production environments, potentially attracting additional software developers and enterprise users to its ecosystem.
The arrangement also highlights broader trends in AI infrastructure financing. Building and equipping modern AI data centers requires substantial upfront capital, and startups often rely on complex debt and equity structures to scale. Chip backed loans and leasing arrangements are emerging as tools to bridge funding gaps while securing long term supply agreements.
As global demand for AI compute capacity continues to outpace supply, partnerships between semiconductor firms and cloud startups are likely to expand. The Crusoe deal illustrates how hardware vendors are becoming more deeply embedded in the financial architecture of the AI buildout, shaping not only technology stacks but also capital flows across the sector.
