Dec 12 (Reuters) - Crusoe has raised $600 million in a

Series D funding round led by venture capital firm Founders

Fund, the artificial intelligence infrastructure provider said

on Thursday.

The new fundraise valued Crusoe at $2.8 billion. Other

investors in the round included Fidelity, Long Journey Ventures,

the United Arab Emirates sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, Nvidia ( NVDA )

, Ribbit Capital and Valor Equity Partners, the company

said.

The latest fundraising will be used to invest in the

expansion and growth of data centers and the Crusoe cloud, the

startup said.

The rapid evolution of cloud computing and data centers,

driven by generative AI, underscores the growing importance of

AI infrastructure providers such as Crusoe, Lambda and

CoreWeave.

These companies integrate graphics processing units and

other tools into their infrastructure to assist enterprises in

managing their AI workloads effectively.

Crusoe, which was launched in 2018 as a cryptocurrency

business, pivoted to building computing and AI infrastructure

using large-scale clean energy.

Over the past year, Crusoe has expanded its collaboration

with chipmaker Nvidia ( NVDA ), consulting firm Deloitte

and computing infrastructure provider VAST Data, among

others.

The company has introduced Crusoe Cloud, a new cloud

platform aimed at helping developers and data scientists manage

AI and machine learning workloads efficiently.

Investors are rushing to support startups capitalizing on

the generative AI boom.

Last week, AI firm Nebius Group said it was raising $700

million in a private placement from investors, including Nvidia ( NVDA ),

to build tools for AI developers.