Datacenters buy Boom Supersonic a ticket to revive fast air transport

Boom Supersonic, the company that hopes to revive faster-than-sound air travel, has diverted into the datacenter power business. As revealed in a Tuesday post from CEO Blake Scholl, he was doomscrolling on X and saw “post after post about the power crisis hitting AI data centers.” He therefore texted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who apparently confirmed the veracity of those posts, before contacting Boom’s engineering team, who unbeknown to Scholl had already created “the outline of a plan to build a power turbine based on our Symphony supersonic engine.” “After a few conversations, it became clear: AI didn’t just need more turbines – it needed a new and fundamentally better turbine,” Scholl wrote. “Symphony was the perfect new engine to accelerate AI in America. About three months later, we had a signed deal for 1.21 gigawatts and had started manufacturing the first turbine.” Boom Supersonic has named that turbine “Superpower” and rated it as capable of producing 42 megawatts of power using natural gas as fuel. The company also scored $300 million in funding and neocloud Crusoe as a customer. “And most importantly: this marks a turning point,” Scholl wrote. “Boom is now on a self-funded path to both Superpower and the Overture supersonic airliner.” Boom's XB-1 jet nails supersonic flight for first time Boom Supersonic takes baby steps toward breaking the sound barrier Concorde? Pffft. NASA wants a Mach 4 passenger jet Japan assembles superteam of aircraft component manufacturers to build supersonic passenger plane Scholl’s post explains that his company’s supersonic engines “run hard, continuously, at extreme thermal loads,” which is just what datacenters need. Adapting Boom’s engines therefore made sense. Turbines built for conventional aircraft, he asserts, can’t be adapted into datacenter power plants because they’re only asked to produce peak power for part of a flight, need a cool environment in which to run, and plenty of water to keep them cool. Youtube Video The CEO said Boom is building a “Superpower Superfactory” to produce turbines for datacenters and has ordered “much of the production equipment to support 2GW/yr.” The CEO didn’t say when that factory will come online or discuss the cost of producing energy to power datacenters. But he did describe Superpower as “the strongest accelerant we’ve ever had toward our core mission of making Earth dramatically more accessible.” ®