MCJ Live - Where AI Meets Energy with Crusoe
MCJ is coming to town and we’re bringing Crusoe, the AI infrastructure company that just announced $11.6Bn in new capital to build OpenAI’s data center campus in Abilene.
Join us for an afternoon of bold ideas and real-world innovation at the intersection of AI and energy infrastructure.
First, we’ll kick things off with interactive small-group roundtables featuring leading startups in energy storage, EV battery reuse, distributed systems, and next-gen nuclear, all building in Texas — see the list below!
Then we’ll host a live recording of Inevitable, the MCJ podcast, featuring Crusoe Co-founder, President and COO, Cully Cavness, in conversation with MCJ Managing Partner Cody Simms. The discussion will dive into the evolving relationship between compute, energy resilience, and climate innovation.
This event is created and curated by MCJ and proudly sponsored by Gunderson Dettmer and J.P. Morgan.
Agenda:
✅ 3:30 PM: Guest check-in
💬 3:45–5 PM: Roundtable discussions with ATX builders (see lineup below)
🎙️ 5–6 PM: Live podcast with Cully Cavness of Crusoe
🍷 6–7 PM: Happy hour mixer
💬 Roundtable Builders include:
Aalo Atomics - building mass-manufactured nuclear plants that will power anything from a datacenter to a city
Base Power - a modern power company built on a network of distributed energy storage for home and businesses
Light - a utility-as-a-service company, enabling a new generation of energy businesses, products, and experiences
Exowatt - modular renewable energy systems that generate and store industrial heat and electricity, designed for rapid deployment and scalability targeting data centers
Moment Energy - repurposes retired electric vehicle batteries to provide clean, affordable, and reliable battery energy storage systems.
🎙️ Meet our podcast guest and host:
🎤 Cully Cavness works at the intersection of Crusoe's energy and data center activities, spanning hundreds of megawatts of power production, data center, and cloud computing operations. Prior to co-founding Crusoe in 2018, Cully served in leadership and management positions in the upstream oil & gas industry and geothermal energy industry, as well as in energy investment banking. Cully was named as a 2021 Entrepreneur of the Year by EY, has authored multiple issued patents, and has won awards for leadership as well as environmental and technology innovation.
🎤 Cody Simms is the host of the Inevitable podcast and Managing Partner at MCJ. He's also co-founder of Climate Changemakers, a non-profit climate action network that got its start in the MCJ Collective member community. Cody co-authored the Amazon-bestselling book Levers: The Framework for Building Repeatability into Your Business.
MCJ is an early-stage fund for the transition of energy and industry, and the inevitable impacts of climate change. We discover and invest in startups rewriting industries to be cleaner, more profitable, and more resilient. We strengthen our investments through the MCJ Collective — a vetted member network that connects talented tech and industrial leaders with our portfolio and with one another. Our media platform, including the Inevitable podcast, spotlights key perspectives critical to our portfolio and the transition at large, reaching tens of thousands of professionals multiple times per week.
Gunderson Dettmer is the preeminent international law firm with an exclusive focus on the innovation economy. The firm serves market-leading venture capital and growth equity investors and pioneering companies through inception, growth and maturity, as well as groundbreaking public companies that result from the global venture capital ecosystem. The firm’s focus and technical skill enables an accelerated pace and unmatched efficiency, delivering best-in-class value at each phase of a client’s business.
J.P. Morgan serves venture-backed and high-growth companies, founders and venture capital firms across the globe in industries like Technology, Disruptive Commerce, Internet, Life Sciences, Climate Tech and HealthTech. The Climate Tech team serves companies advancing decarbonization through transformative technologies, including EV manufacturing and charging, energy storage and grid resilience, agriculture and food technology, circular economy, built environment and carbon tech.