Google and Blackstone's joint venture has been hit with delays at some of its data center projects. As reported by Bloomberg , the company is facing obstacles at various data center locations across the US, but the JV remains optimistic about its progress.

Known internally as Project Braid, the JV was formed in May of this year and saw Google and Blackstone planning to launch a new cloud platform offering Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). Blackstone said it would invest $5 billion in equity capital from its funds, and the two aim to bring 500MW of capacity online in 2027, with plans to expand over time.

According to the Bloomberg report, among the projects hit with delays is a data center that was being developed in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Previously, the project was being pursued by Crusoe as a 1.8GW campus that could scale to 10GW .

But in June, Crusoe said it had paused work on the site "at the request of our customer." Google then took over the project the following month. According to Bloomberg's anonymous sources, this was due to Google losing confidence in Crusoe's ability to deliver the project. It has since been scaled down. Another project site was deemed unsuitable as it had the wrong kinds of transformers, and Governor Greg Abbott's decision to freeze new projects in Texas has also presented an obstacle.

Despite this, Benjamin Treynor Sloss, the CEO of the JV, told Bloomberg via email: "It is very common for individual potential sites to progress at different rates." He added that this has been considered in planning and the JV has a “diversified set of options” and is making “strong progress." Sources told Bloomberg that the JV has identified some 29 potential data center locations. DCD has reached out to Google, Blackstone, and Crusoe for comment.