AI Infrastructure Giant Crusoe Acquires Israeli Startup Atero in Deal Worth Over $150 Million

Crusoe, the U.S.-based AI infrastructure company behind OpenAI’s massive Stargate data center, has announced the acquisition of Israeli startup Atero in a deal estimated to exceed $150 million. The acquisition marks one of the fastest and most lucrative exits in recent Israeli tech history, as Atero was founded just 13 months ago and had raised only $12 million in seed funding.

The deal underscores the surging demand and competitive pressure in the AI infrastructure space, where companies are racing to optimize GPU-based computing for training and deploying large language models (LLMs). Atero’s 25 employees will join Crusoe and form the foundation of its new research and development center in Israel.

From Seed to Exit in Record Time

Atero was founded in July 2024 by Alon Yariv (CEO) and Omer Landau (CTO). The company specializes in software for managing and optimizing computational accelerators and GPUs, critical infrastructure for AI workloads. Despite having no reported revenue, the startup attracted significant investor attention, with its seed round led by Primary Ventures and Lool Ventures, and supported by prominent figures such as Asaf Rapaport (Wiz) and Ofir Erlich (EON).

"This is a classic case of a team with deep domain expertise building high-impact tech in a red-hot market," said an industry insider. "Companies like Crusoe are willing to pay a premium to shorten time-to-market by even a few months."

Strategic Fit for Crusoe Cloud

Crusoe plans to integrate Atero’s technology into its Crusoe Cloud platform, aiming to boost performance, energy efficiency, and scalability. The move supports Crusoe’s broader strategy to evolve from a physical infrastructure provider into a full-fledged cloud computing company for AI.

The Denver-based firm, founded in 2018, builds and operates clean-energy-powered data centers tailored for AI applications. Its flagship project, Stargate, is being developed in partnership with OpenAI and is expected to become one of the largest AI data centers in the world.

Crusoe: From Infrastructure to AI Cloud Powerhouse

Crusoe has raised hundreds of millions of dollars this year and, according to a recent report by The Information, is currently in talks to raise an additional $10 billion. The company’s 2024 revenue stood at approximately $250 million, including now-sold crypto operations. Yet Crusoe is pitching an aggressive growth plan, projecting revenue from GPU cloud computing to rise from $100 million this year to $1.3 billion in 2026, and $18 billion by 2030.

For comparison, Crusoe’s rival CoreWeave is currently trading at a 30x revenue multiple, while Crusoe’s latest valuation implies a 40x multiple, signaling investor confidence in its transformation into a leading AI cloud player.

For co-founder Alon Yariv, this marks a dramatic turnaround after the closure of his previous startup, Qubex, which focused on cloud traffic load management. That venture was eventually shut down, and its assets were sold to Zesty. Atero’s rapid rise and exit now put Yariv and co-founder Landau at the center of one of Israel’s most significant AI success stories in recent memory.

With the acquisition, Crusoe gains not only breakthrough technology but also a foothold in Israel’s deep AI talent pool, solidifying its global R&D capabilities as it competes in a crowded and rapidly evolving market.