{"id":36400,"date":"2025-10-25T02:11:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T02:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/nfl-star-saquon-barkley-jumps-in-alongside-nvidia-to-back-ai-data-center-startup-crusoe\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T02:11:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T02:11:58","slug":"nfl-star-saquon-barkley-jumps-in-alongside-nvidia-to-back-ai-data-center-startup-crusoe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/nfl-star-saquon-barkley-jumps-in-alongside-nvidia-to-back-ai-data-center-startup-crusoe\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL star Saquon Barkley jumps in alongside Nvidia to back AI data center startup Crusoe"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68fc00e8599d46a4ccc0d948?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley jumps over a Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback.\"\/><figcaption>Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley jumps over a Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Hartline\/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>NFL star Saquon Barkley is among a long list of top investors backing AI data center startup Crusoe.<\/li>\n<li>The $1.4 billion funding round values Crusoe at more than $10 billion.<\/li>\n<li>The NFL player has a tech portfolio that includes Anthropic and Neuralink, according to The Profile.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NFL star Saquon Barkley has added another venture to his growing tech investment portfolio, joining a long list of backers in the AI data center startup Crusoe.<\/p>\n<p>Crusoe, which calls itself &quot;the AI Factory Company,&quot; is valued at over $10 billion in this latest $1.4 billion funding round. The company has become a leader in AI infrastructure through an approach that combines energy sourcing, AI-optimized data center construction, and its own cloud.<\/p>\n<p>The new funding round, announced on Friday, includes a huge list of investors, such as Valor Equity Partners, Mubadala Capital, and Nvidia. I was scanning all the names, and out jumped Barkley.<\/p>\n<p>I was initially surprised, but the Philadelphia Eagles running back has already made several tech, AI, and venture capital investments. According to a recent report published by The Profile, Barkley is an investor in AI startup Anthropic, Elon Musk&#039;s Neuralink, prediction platform Polymarket, and Peter Thiel&#039;s Founders Fund.<\/p>\n<p>The NFL star has said he lives off endorsement income and invests most of his direct football earnings. He got into startup investing after reading Thiel&#039;s &quot;Zero to One&quot; book, and Barkley interviews startup founders himself before backing them, according to The Profile.<\/p>\n<p>Crusoe&#039;s mission to &quot;activate energy for intelligence&quot; aligns with Barkley&#039;s interest in innovation and long-term wealth creation. The company operates massive clean-energy-powered data centers designed to accelerate AI development by reducing bottlenecks. Leading AI startups, including Together AI and Fireworks, use its Crusoe Cloud product.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman said Crusoe wouldn&#039;t say how Barkley came to invest in the startup. Founders Fund was involved in the latest round, though.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Sign up for BI&#039;s Tech Memo newsletter <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/subscription\/newsletter\/tech-memo\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>here<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>. Reach out to me via email at <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>abarr@businessinsider.com<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley jumps over a Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback. Eric Hartline\/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters NFL star Saquon Barkley is among a long list of top investors backing AI data center startup Crusoe. The $1.4 billion funding round values Crusoe at more than $10 billion. The NFL player has a tech portfolio [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}