Crusoe Project Flash (Summit View Business Park) data center, Rocky Mount, Virginia

The data center Crusoe AI planned for Rocky Mount, Virginia will not be built. Franklin County Boone District supervisor Mike Meredith said in mid-August 2026 that the county had been told the Crusoe project, known as Project Flash, would not move forward: "Project Flash is not proceeding." The project was to be built by Crusoe AI in the Summit View Business Park, just north of Rocky Mount in Franklin County, with 50 to 100 megawatts of power on 150 acres, of which at least 95 were developable.

Residents found out about the project on their own, through documents released in July 2026 under a Freedom of Information Act request. More than 100 people met at the Scruggs volunteer fire department to work out what it would mean for the county. Franklin County Community Coalition chair Kim Jones, who had pushed against the project for about six months, said: "It's hard to wrap your head around the magnitude of the whole thing."

County officials had been negotiating with Crusoe for months and the company had been talking to electric provider Appalachian Power about the electricity it would need, but officials were bound by non-disclosure agreements. Resident Christine Sizemore said: "I think one of the issues, or primarily issue that I'm sensing really is the lack of transparency. This is a major infrastructure project that isn't just putting a factory up or another building somewhere." Neither the county nor Crusoe said why the project ended.

Rocky Mount mayor Holland Perdue, who attended the community meetings, opposed the project: "Economic development is not something simply about attracting an investment. It is about attracting the right investment for the community." Resident Laura Carter said the fight was not over: "We won a battle, but we haven't won the war."