Google has taken over an unfinished data centre project in south-eastern Wyoming from developer Crusoe, confirming on Friday that it has bought the site outright and will finish the build itself. The deal underlines how hard it has become for independent developers to deliver the giant computing campuses that artificial intelligence now demands.

Crusoe, a Denver-based company recently valued at $30.9 billion, had announced the project last year alongside Blackstone-backed infrastructure firm Tallgrass, with plans to scale it eventually to 10 gigawatts of power capacity. TechCrunch reports that Google, which Crusoe had tried and failed to sign up as a customer for the site, stepped in after raising concerns about the cost and construction timetable under Crusoe's management.

Google has not disclosed what it paid for the unfinished project. A day before the sale was confirmed, the company announced plans to invest $17 billion in developing the campus, its first data centre in Wyoming. That figure is a long-term investment commitment for the site, not the purchase price.

The power plan for the Laramie County campus includes a 702-megawatt fuel-cell development contracted with American Electric Power, using equipment from Bloom Energy and carbon capture and storage at Tallgrass's Eastern Wyoming Sequestration Hub. Google says it will pay for the power it uses and for infrastructure needs caused directly by its growth.

The takeover does not end the relationship between the two companies. Crusoe is still developing another data centre for Google near Amarillo, Texas, and its campus in Abilene, Texas, is being built in phases for Oracle and OpenAI. The Wyoming setback has not slowed Crusoe's fundraising: it raised a $3.9 billion round in September, months after Bloomberg first reported in June that the site could change hands.