DRA01 facility now live and powering Crusoe Cloud, as partnership expands into DRA02 to support continued growth of AI infrastructure in Europe
LONDON, UK – October 21, 2026 – Polar Data Centers (“Polar”), a European developer and operator of AI-ready data center infrastructure, today announced the expansion of its partnership with Crusoe, the AI factory company, building on the successful deployment and operation of Crusoe’s AI infrastructure at Polar’s DRA01 facility in Tørdal, Norway.
DRA01 is now live, providing 12MW of IT capacity, powered by 100% hydroelectric energy. The facility combines modular infrastructure, advanced cooling technology, and resilient electrical systems designed around the requirements of the latest GPU deployments, providing a best-in-class, operational environment to support Crusoe Cloud, Crusoe's AI cloud platform and AI services. The move from initial deployment into stable operations represents an important milestone for the partnership and demonstrates the companies’ ability to deliver and operate infrastructure for the world’s most demanding AI workloads. Polar and Crusoe first announced their partnership around DRA01 in June 2025.
Building on that success, the companies are now expanding their relationship with DRA02, the next phase of Polar’s Tørdal campus. The new facility, also powered by hydroelectric power, is expected to go live in late 2027, and plans to deliver an additional 40MW of critical, liquid-cooled IT capacity. Crusoe plans to deploy NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 at DRA02 to support the next phase of its AI cloud expansion in Norway. It significantly increases the scale available to support Crusoe Cloud’s continued growth in Europe and beyond.
The expansion reflects Polar’s approach to developing long-term customer partnerships: delivering initial capacity successfully, operating it reliably, and creating a platform that can scale as customers’ requirements grow.
Andy Hayes, CEO of Polar, said: “Our ambition has always been to help our customers develop the future of AI, and our relationship with Crusoe is a great example of that in action. We’ve successfully delivered DRA01, Crusoe is live and operating in Norway, and we’re now moving forward together with the next phase of our partnership.
“The expansion into DRA02 demonstrates the strength of the collaboration and the confidence that comes from successful delivery. For Polar, it’s about much more than bringing capacity online. It’s about creating the infrastructure, operational performance, and customer relationships that enable our customers to continue scaling.”
Cully Cavness, Crusoe’s Co-founder, President and Chief Strategy Officer, commented: “Our expansion with Polar in Norway lets Crusoe serve some of the world's most innovative companies with reliable access to Crusoe Cloud’s AI cloud services. What makes Tørdal stand out is that it runs on 100% renewable hydroelectric power — the kind of innovative energy source that aligns with our value of bending the arc of energy towards sustainability. Polar has been a solid partner to help us scale our presence in Europe.”
The successful transition into live operations follows DRA01 being recognised as “Most Successfully Delivered Data Centre” at the Data Centre World Awards 2026, highlighting the quality and execution behind Polar’s first major Norwegian deployment. The move into DRA02 takes that relationship to its next stage and supports Polar’s wider vision to accelerate AI infrastructure and create the infrastructure platform customers need to develop the future of AI.
Source: https://www.crusoe.ai/resources/newsroom/polar-crusoe-partnership-expansion